Hurricane
Katrina has
taken a deadly toll not only
on the human population, but also on our animal friends.
 The
bad news is ...Most chained dogs were either left to drown or
were simply set free to drown or wander, stray, in hopes of finding
food and help. (Graphic images follow)
Many
DDB volunteer reps went/are going in after Katrina: Tammy Grimes,
founder of DDB, Charla Henderson, Tacoma Washington rep, with a
five person team; Josie Entrekin, Atlanta Georgia rep; Dawn Ashby,
Illinois rep and Sandy Lynn, Missouri rep; Caroline Hosley, New
York rep, and her partner; Heidi Pollyea, Atlanta, Georgia rep and
Stacey McDermott. Updates posted with photos as they become available.
 We
need funding to educate so horrible deaths like this don't continue!
This is why we cannot build doghouses to enable this treatment of
man's best friend to go on. Click below, or call our toll-free
number at 1.877.636.1408.
If
you'd like to donate via regular USPS mail, you may print
out this form in .pdf
format, and send to P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 16684
From
Friedemann Diederichs, these confirm our worst fears:
 "These
pictures were taken yesterday in Waveland, MS where I spent three
days this week as a news reporter and where I decided to start the
rescue efforts for injured and abandonned pets after recognizing
that nobody was caring for them one week after the storm. Several
rescue groups are now on site and already have brought dozens of
animals to safety.
But
they could not help this dog. This lovely animal was chained to
a tree close to a trailer in Waveland, before the piece of scum
- who still might consider himself an owner - left to rescue himself.
The
dog had no chance at all to fight for his live. It drowned when
the flood was rising. Please let this be a stern warning to everyone
to NEVER EVER chain your dog - especially when you decide to leave
the dog behind in times of crisis. At least, give the pet a chance
to fight for its life. Set it free where it has some kind of a chance
to escape with his life."
If
you'd like to donate via regular USPS mail, you may print
out this form in .pdf
format, and send to P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 16684
 This
art "As
We Stand Helpless...Sending E-mails: In the Wake of Katrina",
by DDB founder Tammy S. Grimes, expresses the frustration and helplessness
most of us felt at this time, an inability to help, not knowing
HOW to help or what to do...50% of the proceeds from sales of this
art will go directly to help the victims of Katrina. If interested
in purchasing a print, t-shirt or other item with this art, please
visit www.littlegirllooking.com.
 Another
artpiece by Tammy Grimes, second in the New Orleans series, is entitled
"One Life in New Orleans"
based on her efforts there in November. This art donates 50% of
the proceeds to Dogs Deserve Better to continue our efforts to educate
others not to chain their dogs for life.. If interested in purchasing
a print, t-shirt or other item with this art, please visit www.littlegirllooking.com.
From
Tammy Grimes and Tracy Copes:
"I
would definitely consider the trip to New Orleans a life-changing
experience. I saw things I never thought I'd see, cars on top of
cars, houses with doors flung wide and no one around for blocks,
animals still scrounging and fighting for survival.
Not
as many, but they're there.
We
spent part of each day feeding with Jane Garrison's Animal Rescue
New Orleans. I'm an Italian Grandmother at heart, and so the thought
of animals starving just kills me. They had the city sectioned off
and we took section 32 as 'ours'. By the end of the week we knew
that section, we knew where we'd seen animals and where we needed
to stop and set up more feeding stations.
We
saw only two dead animals, which I have photos of but will 'spare
you' that visual. One of the other volunteers I met nearly had a
nervous breakdown after her first trip down, she told me, because
she came upon a dog chained to a fence and left to drown and it
so saddened her that she couldn't take it. I didn't find any dead
chained dogs by this time, but I did see plenty of overturned doghouses
and rusty chains. I hope those dogs were set free before the storm.
There
was two or three different houses where there were at least three
cats we were feeding that we saw, so we stopped to check them each
day. Of course I'm worried about them now, hoping someone else is
stepping in to feed these babies who became ours although they knew
it not. We heard reports of packs of dogs, and did see a pack of
three, and some other singles. We coordinated with a trapper from
MuttShack, another rescue organization nearby to trap a purebred
black chow and let them know where we'd seen some single dogs. We
thought we had one dog 'trapped' twice in a fenced area, but due
to the fences being down he escaped us both times.
Just
as we were getting done with our final feeding on Friday, we spotted
a black cat that did not look in good shape. She was the only cat
who allowed us close enough to touch her as she ate the food we
offered. We were able to grab her and take her to Muttshack. Unfortunately,
they were so overwhelmed with cats that they could not keep her,
so Tracy and I said one of us would take her home with us. They
were kind enough to vet her for us, which we're very grateful for.
Turned out she was pregnant, and we truly don't believe she would
have lasted too much longer out there. She went home with my friend
Tracy to Florida to get better and have her litter, we're praying
for a full recovery.
While
speaking to Amanda St. John, founder of Muttshack, she mentioned
that she had rescue groups willing to take some of the cats to open
up space for more to come up, but no transport available.
Fortunately
(or unfortunately!) for me, one of them was in PA, so I told her
I'd transport some home for her. She was overjoyed! I was selfishly
kinda bummed at losing my lovely night in a hotel alone for a moment's
peace before heading back to the chaos of my everyday home life.
However, I kept telling myself, this would make a difference, and
it did. It opened up spots for eight more cats now living on the
street.
We
slept in the FEMA tent, which was awesome, and reminded me of my
service days. I was so excited to be back amongst the big tents
and cots and military atmosphere! Plus, we got three free square
meals a day there, AND they did your laundry for you! What could
be better? I kept telling everyone, go get them to do your laundry!
haha. If you stay there, make sure to take some warm sleeping bags/blankets,
it got a bit nippy at night.
After
feeding each day, we'd go to MuttShack to walk some dogs and help
out there a little bit. They are becoming very overwhelmed with
animals, and NEED rescue groups to step up to take some in, as well
as transport to these rescue groups. They cannot bring anymore dogs
or cats in until some are moved out. They had all breeds represented,
young and VERY adoptable dogs: Chows, cattle dogs, benji dogs, black
labs, puppies, australian shepherds, of course pits, beagles, a
min pin...the Chow we helped capture was very depressed, and I'd
LOVE To know a chow rescue went in there and pulled some chows out,
especially that guy and a little mixed chow I called "My Little
Chow Girl". I walked her every day, and just loved her up.
She was very quiet but loved the attention anyway.They are still
desperately in need of both feeders and rescue groups to pull animals.
Step
up to help. I believe it's an experience you will NEVER forget,
and my true kudos to those of you still down there helping: Animal
Rescue New Orleans, MuttShack, Best Friends, Alley Cat Allies, and
Grass Roots Animal Rescue."
Contact
info for MuttShack: amanda@muttshack.org; http://www.muttshack.org;
866.718.1001
Contact info for Animal Rescue New Orleans: http://www.animalrescueneworleans.com
From
Dawn Ashby, Sandy Lynn, and Barb Nozzi:
 
 
 
 
 
"In
these pix are some rescued animals, some pets of people who are
staying at the Red Cross shelter, donations we organized and piled
onto pallets for storage and to be transported to other shelters,
a puppy with a broken leg.
We
worked with EARS in a shelter made up in the Mississippi Fairgrounds. We
tried to work with Kinship Circle, but when we got there we had
no one to meet us, nowhere to sleep, no one to tell us where to
go to start working. We spoke with another lady who has
taken over the overseeing of the Waveland, St. Louis Bay areas,
but it was too late for our help because were already there and
wasting valuable time just trying to find somewhere to go to work
with animals. Through Sandy Lynn's mother we actually
found a contact in Jackson, Mississippi working with EARS at a Hurricane
Katrina Animal Shelter, and that's were we ended up, a little backtracking,
but we feel we made at least a small dent in the great need for
these animals and their people. We worked hard, learned
much, and cared for distressed animals who need love and attention
more than anything else."
From
Josie Entrekin, Georgia rep:
 
"We
left on the night of the 17th. We went to Mobile, where we met Julia
Fisher around 3:00 am. She let us into a storage area and helped
us unload about half of the supplies. It is there that the surrounding
shelters go to get what they need. We had about 2.5-3 tons of dog
food, about 1 ton of cat food, maybe 50 crates, bowls collars, leashes,
paper product, veterinary supplies, 50 lbs of flea preventative,
etc. Then she sent us along to drive down Hwy 90. She had told us
that there were all sorts of places along the way that needed help.
We traveled along 10 and tried to drop down to 90 around Slidell.
We could not get over, bridges were destroyed. We started to back
track and ran into animal control. They loaded all of us in the
back of their truck and took us to see Terry from Noahs Wish. The
shelter there was a big metal building that was about 110 degrees.
Cats were panting. The animals were in extremely poor shape. Terry
said they were not releasing any animals at all. She sent us on
to Ganzales. We arived there and I spoke to Dr. Eric Davis (in one
of the pictures) he drove me all around trying to get them to release
some animals to us. He tried to explain to them that we have a whole
network of vets ready to care for and foster these animal. We had
absolutely no luck, you can see our frustration in the picture.
He was also very upset by the fact that they were thowing away plastic
crates that people had donated by the hundreds. Fom there we went
to Hammond. I had recieved an urgent e-mail from them. They had
just released the dogs to a Houston group. They did have on little
black girl that we did take with us, she was our hero! They tried
to get ahold of Blackmans Parish so we could get directions but
they could not get ahold of anyone and it was getting dark. We had
to head back by then. So....we are going back this weekend, hopefully
to help out and come back with some dogs."
 
 
 
 
From
second trip: "We just got back from Dothan with 15 dogs and
17 cats!! Some are in better shape than others. There is a little
Shepherd mix, maybe 6 months old that had a collar partially embedded
in it neck, I think I'm keeping him."
From
Caroline Hosley, New York rep, 10/7/05:
 "We
took two days to make the drive from Oswego, NY to Dothan Alabama,
where we volunteered for 5 days and brought 10 dogs back to New
York with us.
The first couple days we were at the Dothan Animal Shelter, where
the Save-a-pet foundation, a lot of what we did was take care of
the current hurricane dogs: walking, feeding, cleaning, socializing
the 25 or so that were there currently. Fortunately, the day
before we arrive a rescue came through and took as many dogs as
were available at the time as they could. All dogs were held
for 5 days to be observed and to reduce the stress on them from
all the transport. A lot of the dogs that were there had been picked
up from a rescue in Boutte, Louisiana, but there were others brought
up from a Mobile, Alabama shelter that went to small towns in Mississippi
to do rescue. We were also asked to help socialize about 20
pit bull puppies that were being held pending a court case.
They were the result of a fighting pit bull ring that had been busted.
All the pups had been temperament tested, and so did not face
euthanasia.
On our third day we made a transport run with two other Save-a-pet
volunteers (3 vehicles total) to Raceland, Louisiana to pick up
dogs from the Pasado Safe Haven staging area. Because I-10
to New Orleans was closed, we ended up having to go quite a bit
west of New Orleans and then south to get to the area. It
ended up being a 7 hour drive one way from Dothan to Raceland.
Save-a-Pet was kind enough to help cover our mileage and gas expenses.
We also stopped at a rescue in Boutte, Louisiana on the way, where
Save-a-Pet had gotten dogs from before to see if they needed us
to take any more. We ended up picking up 2 dogs from them:
an emaciated shepherd and a boston terrier/ pit bull cross.
When
we finally got to Raceland, we found that a lot of the dogs at the
Pasado staging area had been picked up earlier that day by other
rescues. We had the capacity to bring back about 50 dogs,
but unfortunately, after waiting for several hours for another rescue
team to come back with more dogs, we were only able to bring back a
total of 12 dogs. A lot of the dogs that were already there
were either being held for other rescuers, had behavioral issues,
or were pit bulls. Because of the pit bull problems in Dothan,
Save-a-pet couldn't take in anymore than they already had, so were
were forced to leave many of them behind. The other dogs would
not be released by the Safe Haven, for various reasons.
One
of our rescuers had headed back early with her teenage son and 4
Raceland dogs. We loaded up the remaining 8 into our van and
headed back, driving through the night. We arrived in Dothan
around 7 am the next morning. The third volunteer that drove
with us left empty-handed and stayed the night at a friend's house
because she was too tired to drive. An entire cargo van totally
empty. The next morning, however, the woman running the Pasado
setup called Save-a-Pet and asked someone to please come back as
she had just had over 100 dogs come in, some that were surrendered,
and others that were now available but had not been available the
night before. Unfortunately Save-a-Pet had nobody to drive
back down as we transporters were exhausted. I guess it was
all just a case of bad timing.
We
slept most of the day on Thursday, but went to the shelter that
night and filled out the paperwork for the dogs were were taking
back. We ended up only being able to fit 10. The dogs
were all medium to large sized dogs, and we only had room for 10
large crates.
The next morning (Friday) we got up early, loaded up the van, and
headed back for New York. We arrived at my foster
home Saturday around 9, having stopped in Virginia for some sleep.
The dogs were all SO good on the trip. We were quite the sight,
I'm sure, stopping at rest stops and unloading ten dogs to pee and
poop. Every time we stopped, it took a little over an
hour for the both of us, my partner Susan and myself, to get
everyone out and walked and watered.
We
FINALLY made it home, though. Four of our dogs are heartworm
positive and most have an upper respiratory virus (as a result all
my dogs as well as my two foster mom's dogs have the virus as well).
3 of the dogs are at my house now: a beagle dachshund female, a
foxhound female, and a very skinny shepherd female who just happened
to be pregnant, so now we also have 4 newborns at our house (not
including my own 5 dogs and 8 cats, but we also have another foster
dog here, and a foster kitten and momcat as well). Our chocolate
lab mix Winston is being adopted today (his new mom is Bobbie, a
PA rep), and the other foster home has decided to keep the wolf
hybrid, Jack. That leaves 8 to go. The dogs that are
ready to go are the beagle/dachshund Cody (needs spaying, but can
be done during her last week of fostering), the foxhound X Sunny
(totally ready), the pit bull hugo (neutered and ready to go, 1
more week of "fostering" before adoption can be official),
and a black lab X female, totally ready to go. My sharpei
is going to be treated soon for heartworms, My shepherd has a litter
of 4 pups to raise, the black lab male who is HW positive still
needs to gain some weight and kick the respiratory virus, and my
cattle dog mix needs spaying and HW treatment as well."
From
Heidi Pollyea, Atlanta rep, 10/12/05:
 "We
made it back from the Humane Society of South Mississippi safe and
sound. We walked, bathed, fed, watered, and cleaned pens for dogs
all three days. The shelter definitely needed our help. They had
lost many animals when their shelter flooded and the original Director
was so upset .. she never came back. Ditto with many of the employees.
We only saw a handful of employees each day … there were a
few other volunteers there from various groups and together we were
the ones that mainly walked the dogs for hours. The animals were
soo appreciative. I was able to bring one beautiful girl home with
me for my wonderful neighbor Resa. Her pics and story are attached.
We both worked very hard and enjoyed meeting the other volunteers
(at the time we were there, there was a small group of vet techs
from St. Louis and then a larger ASPCA group from Virginia Beach
There were also various contractors, army personnel and state policemen
staying at the same public golf course turned campground.
I must mention that our Stacey (McDermott) in particular wins the
hardest working volunteer award. She was the first one inside the
shelter each morning and the last one to leave. She set goals each
day and met them (i.e. each and every dog in this shelter will get
walked and/or each and every pen will be cleaned and have fresh
water )
Anyway, Tammy I hope we made a difference, I feel like we did. Now
my goal has been to spread the word about this being a somewhat
neglected shelter in the big scheme of things and continuing to
encourage other rescuers to go down to the Humane Society of South
Mississippi and help if they can.
Thank you again for the opportunity!!!" ~Heidi
Dogs
Deserve Better is a 501c3 nonprofit education/legislation/rescue
organization.
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