CAPTION: A small dog covered in oil comes out from under a freezer of the Pizza Hut in Chalmette, La., Wednesday. The female dog was doing fine and appeared to have been cleaned up a little from the day before.
This is one of 23 photos in a slide show, about Katrina’s toll on animals, at the Chicago Tribune. Other images include the dolphins in the swimming pool, a stray horse, a rescued squirrel, and much more.
Find out more — including news updates — at HSUS. And, the Tribune has a list of groups helping the animals.
Thanks for keeping us updating on how the non-human animals are doing.
Thanks. The first photo in the slide show made me gasp out loud.
I heard a reporter on the BBC last night saying that many of the people who are "refusing" to evacuate NO (and are about to be forcibly evacuated) are doing so because they’re being forced to leave their pets behind. Do you know more about this? They seriously expect people to abondoned their pets to almost certain death? This is almost as sick as what they did to the people last week. It’s the moral and emotional equivalent of forcing people to leave their children behind.
that a couple of sea otters and a group of penguins from one of the aquariums are heading for California, possibly the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco (currently in temporary digs while their facilities in Golden Gate Park are being rebuilt). They’ll be cared for, but probably will not go on public display; the plan is for it to be a “visit”, not a permanent relocation.
The penguins and otters are going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium — which, oddly enough, was where the otters originated. Perfect place for them — Monterey definitely has the expertise to give them the best care.
I donated to the Humane Society yesterday – it’s one of the organizations that my company will match donations. Sitting here with two old, purring cats on my lap, I can only imagine how much it would mean for people who’ve lost everything to at least have their animal friends with them.
BTW, if you haven’t watched the OPRAH clip on crooksandliars yet…well, go watch it, and make sure you have a couple of kleenex handy.
Next time somebody knocks celebrities for being “political” or getting involved in stuff like this, I’m gonna emulate Senator Landrieu and most likely punch them. God knows Hollywood has done more for Katrina victims than the fucking Bush administration…
Baton Rouge Human Society is doing animal rescues in New Orleans and surrounding areas. Their number is 1-888-773-6489. I didn’t see them listed in the Tribune.
Pets are completely dependent on humans to survive. There is this fantasy idea that people have that pets can fend for themselves in the wild when left alone, that they can hunt for food. Unfortunately, this is rarely true.
Fact: Kittens do not need to be taught to hunt by their mothers, but they do need to be taught to eat their kill. Which is why your pet cat plays with a dead mouse instead of chowing down – he’s never seen his mother do it.
And all tame dogs know how to do is forage — if there is anything to forage for, any garbage to find, any dead bodies to eat. Unless they find a pack of other dogs, they won’t be able to bring down any animals themselves. And packs of dogs quickly become a danger to humans, and hence to themselves.
Our domesticated animals threw in their lot with the human race thousands of years ago, and lost many of their instincts and survival skills in the process (while we benefited from their skills). They deserve to be taken care of as much as we can. To not make an effort would be barbaric.
That’s very well written, NYCO. I hope you’ll do a diary on this. You could do a lot to get rid of that myth.
My daughter and I have now helped innumerable cats who were dumped off at the local Wal-Mart. We’ve spayed two females, and raised/socialized three batches of their kittens before the two females could be caught (very tricky since they were trap-smart).
I kept one of the females. I WISH I had a photo of how she looked when she spent her first month in a large cage in my garage .. I had to keep her there until she was vaccinated / and the vaccine took effect because I had to protect my own cat.
We all said about Althea, which I named her: “Oh, she’s so homely.”
The man who caught her in a trap said that he’d never fed her because she wasn’t the orange, pretty female cat he preferred. He said no one in the office building by Wal-Mart fed her. People threw rocks and full cans of Coke at her. Everyone of them hated her because she had spats with the pretty orange cat.
Her face was not pretty. Her tail was cut off when she crawled inside a car engine to stay warm … and it has an ugly stub that, the veterinarian told me, could only be fixed with plastic surgery.
She was truly HOMELY.
After a month in my garage, we brought her inside. She immediately jumped on my lap. Then she jumped on Darcy’s lap.
But we could only pet her for a minute or two before she’d bite or swat at us. I looked it up in a book — the book said it was a syndrome when cats feel they’re been over-petted.
True to a point.
Over the next many months, more and more, she’d let me pet her more. And she’d come up to me all the time to have her head scratched.
To this day, when I pick her up, her entire body stiffens.
But she adores head rubs. When she’s lying on the bed, I sit next to her and put my head down next to her head, and she rubs my hair back and forth. She licks my hair and sometimes (yuck) my ears.
She was terrified when I opened the doors to the outside. She’d run and hide.
I got so, when I took the garbage out, I’d leave the back door wide open because she’d never go out.
Miracle of miracles, a couple days ago, she took her first gingerly steps outside.
It took her 10 months to get over her intense fear of the outdoor world…. after the trauma she’d endured in the wild.
I bought her a collar and a little tag. Then I opened the door again, and she walked out and rolled around in the sun on the concrete steps.
Below, how she looks today. She’s very pretty!
Who knew that 10 months of regular meals, a warm home, and regular attention could transform a truly homely cat into such a beauty?!
And my daughter just sent me this link to an article at CNN about animals. I haven’t read it yet.
at cat shows. And she is probably smarter too.
Great job Susan!