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September 15, 2006 : 12:00 AM
Larry Roberts, a co-founder of KAT 5 Animal Rescue, rescues a dog that
had been hiding underneath a house in New Orleans without food or water for two
weeks. This was one of his first rescues and one that he will always remember.
Dogfight brewing over Katrina's furry victims
Web Posted: 09/15/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Lisa Sandberg
Express-News Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS — If Cindy Healer has her way, 50 dogs and cats rescued from the
homes and streets of this devastated city will be loaded into a moving van and
driven to Texas, where they'll find refuge at the Humane Society/SPCA of Bexar
County.
Photos by Jerry Lara/Express-News
Animal rescue volunteer Larry Roberts, of Atlanta, carries a dog out of a yard
in New Orleans. The animal was suffering from dehydration.
Roberts attempts to lure a dog out of his hiding near the Garden District of New
Orleans. It was the second time animal rescue volunteers visited the dog and
left food and water.
Many of the animals, trapped in homes, have gone two weeks without nourishment.
Some, in dire need of medical care, barely cling to life.
"Half these animals were locked in homes and they're emaciated," said Healer,
director of operations at the Humane Society. "They need to get out of the
state."
It's not clear if authorities will permit that. A spokesman with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture said authorities are becoming increasingly concerned
some rescue groups are taking animals across state lines without regard for
whether the animals were someone's beloved pets.
"They're picking up people's pets and assuming that, because the animals were
loose, they were abandoned, but that's not (necessarily) the case," said Larry
Hawkins, a USDA spokesman.
Hawkins said transporting animals out of state would complicate efforts to
reunite animals with their owners.
He said his agency, working with the Humane Society of the United States and the
Louisiana Society for the Protection Against Cruelty to Animals, is deciding how
much time to allow evacuated residents to claim their animals from shelters
before they're allowed to be put up for adoption.
Tuesday, the director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals asked the National Guard to prevent people from transporting animals out
of Orleans Parish unless they show the animals had been strays, Hawkins said.
Special Section
Hurricane Katrina: News, video, multimedia, information for victims and
volunteers
The conflict between authorities in Louisiana and groups like Bexar County's
Humane Society comes as conditions for the thousands of animals left behind in
Katrina's wake grow more dire.
Hawkins believes the focus should be on reunifying owners and their pets.
Healer said many animals, unless treated immediately, would not survive long
enough to make reunification possible.
The numbers are not good, she said. Two teams of two people from Bexar County,
going door-to-door in a neighborhood west of New Orleans' central business
district, rescued 27 cats and dogs Tuesday and found two dogs dead.
Wednesday, they rescued upward of 27 cats and dogs; four dogs were found dead.
She expects the death rate to soar in the next few days. Whatever provisions
owners left for their animals likely ran out long ago.
No one disputes the difficulty of matching the thousands and thousands of
evacuated pet owners scattered across the country with their pets.
Many of the animals they left behind are traumatized, starving and weak. Some
roam the streets. Few have tags.
Five thousand cats and dogs are being housed at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in
Gonzales, La., and at eight smaller shelters around the state.
Hundreds more animals whose owners have tagged as theirs are being housed at the
Parker Coliseum in Baton Rouge.
Volunteers pour into the city, but not fast enough to find every cat or dog
trapped inside homes or wandering the streets.
"There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dogs that we'll never get to,"
said Larry Roberts, a volunteer from Atlanta.
He drives around the Garden District in his Expedition, calling out, "Hey Dog!"
For every dog he hears bark, he figures there are five or 10 who don't.
Riding up Magazine Street, he hears two barking dogs. The pair are locked in a
second-floor apartment. He and another volunteer rescuer take a crow bar to a
window to gain entry.
"No food, not nothing. Nothing!" said his partner, Lee Bergergon, from San
Diego, Calif.
By some miracle, the dogs, a Rottweiler and a Maltese, appear okay.
The volunteers will leave three bowls filled with food and a huge bowl of water
and depart. Someone will check on them later.
As for Healer, she said she'll attempt a transport on Sunday. If she's sent
back, she'll try again Monday.
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