Two rescued dogs and a rescued cat arrived at the Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley last week. Annie Williams of Ketchum delivered the three victims of Hurricane Katrina to the Hailey-based shelter Thursday, Oct. 13, with hope to find foster care for the animals.
"Everybody's goal is to get these animals reunited with their owners," Williams said. "There were lots and lots of animals stranded because people just had to evacuate."
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina volunteers rescued thousands of pets that were left in New Orleans as families evacuated the city. As part of the rescue effort, the Wood River Valley community extended gracious contributions to assist the displaced pets.
Williams, Sara Ratekin of Ketchum and Alison Hammerbeck of Stanley ventured to New Orleans to help in the animal relief effort.
Ratekin, a veterinarian, and Hammerbeck, a certified veterinarian technician, left Idaho the first week of September to volunteer for a week at a shelter based out of the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La. The two volunteers packed a borrowed Ford Explorer with supplies donated from the valley. Ratekin also returned for a second week to volunteer. On Sept. 17, Williams left to volunteer for three weeks at the shelter.
While in Gonzales, the three women ventured multiple times into New Orleans to look for the abandoned animals running at large and trapped in homes.
"The animals were stranded for a lot of different reasons," Williams said.
Evacuees were not allowed to take their pets on Federal Emergency Management Agency buses. Many people were evacuated from work and some who anticipated a quick return left their animals with food and water in their houses. Hammerbeck and Ratekin spent the majority of their time searching for these orphaned pets.
"At times it was very eerie. It was very deserted in certain parts, other than the National Guard," Hammerbeck said. "As you went closer to the lake the only people you saw were the National Guard and other animal rescue groups. All the streets were empty and very silent—there was no traffic noise, no electrical appliance noise."
"It was like a scene from a sci-fi film of going to Mars. Everything was gray because of the sludge," Williams said.
Hammerbeck, Ratekin and Williams often drove through the city, stopping to call, look and listen for loose animals.
"We found a lot of animals that way," Ratekin said.
The volunteers also entered the city with specific addresses from families who had left their pets. Other rescues emerged with help from the National Guard. The National Guard alerted animal rescue volunteers with spray-painted messages indicating that a dog or cat awaited rescue inside a building. The women broke down many doors to search for stray pets.
One rescue is still vivid for Hammerbeck.
Hammerbeck and Ratekin heard a dog barking from inside a home. With burglar bars protecting the windows and doors of the house, the team attempted to save the trapped dog by pushing an air conditioner through a window.
Unable to access the dog before the city's mandatory 6 p.m. curfew approached, the two were forced to leave the dog scratching at the door.
Before leaving, Hammerbeck painted "Dog trapped inside" on the front steps. Upon her return, she found someone had marked out the message and replaced it with "LASPAC, dog gone, 9/16." The message signaled a successful rescue.
The animal rescue teams brought evacuated animals from New Orleans to the Expo facility. Five barns housed thousands of animals—dogs, cats, pigs, goats, horses, snakes, lizards and hamsters—all rescued through the volunteer effort. One day 750 animals arrived from city.
"The pets were doing much better than I thought they would. The cats did very well. It really surprised me," Ratekin said.
A significant number of pit bull dogs were among the rescued animals.
"They were all cooperative," Ratekin said. "I think all of the animals were so glad to get out of that place."
Hundreds of volunteers aided the pets.
Williams spent the majority of her time working at the shelter. Her typical day began at 6 a.m. walking dogs. By noon it was too hot to walk the animals. Volunteers shifted to cleaning kennels and caring for other animals. In the evening the walks resumed. Williams said she typically worked until 10 p.m.
"There were so many people down there working so hard—blisters on their feet, working themselves into heat exhaustion. These were all volunteers, who had come from across the country. It was pretty amazing to see," Hammerbeck said.
The center served as a processing center to identify animals. Volunteers assigned identification numbers, took digital photos and distributed microchips to pets. The information was then entered into the Petfinder Web site, a database for owners to locate lost pets.
After the identification process, the pets were shipped to shelters all over the country to make way for more rescued animals.
The Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley was one of the shelters to welcome displaced pets. Williams delivered two dogs and a cat to the shelter last week. The animals need foster care until their families can be located or find permanent housing.
The community also contributed by donating medications, kennels, toys and food. Monetary donations were given to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a New Orleans-based shelter.
"I want people to know it was a real privilege. We were lucky because our community was behind us," Ratekin said.
The human dedication to the orphaned pets left a lasting impression with the volunteers.
"People risk their lives to stay with the pets. People risk their lives to save the animals. That's silly," Ratekin said. "I think we can do better, and I think we will do better."
Ratekin hopes to see better evacuation plans in place in the future, which provide shelter to animals upon evacuation, centralized volunteers and an improved database system.
"Let's go forward and let's make it better, so it doesn't happen again," she said.
Annie Williams delivered an orphaned dog to Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley Executive Director Gary DeGeronimo. The dog needs foster care until his New Orleans-based family finds permanent housing. Photo by Megan Thomas
