HelpingAnimals.com // Features
Urgent: Demand That New Orleans Officials Allow Animals to Be Evacuated
Please respond immediately and forward widely.On August 29, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. In addition to the human misery that the storm left in its wake, Katrina left many thousands of animals dead and dying. But the greater problem has turned out to be state and federal governments adding to this toll—and causing the slow and agonizing deaths of many thousands of much-loved dogs, cats, and other animals—through its failure to allow animal protection agents to rescue animals.
Worse, although the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) guidelines on animal handling in a disaster were carefully crafted years ago in cooperation with PETA and other animal organizations, our government has evidently thrown them out the window, even going so far as to order citizens to abandon their animals under threat of arrest—animals who in many cases were considered members of the family and were all that these people had left.
Telling these exasperated citizens of our country to abandon the animals they care for so deeply is, in fact, illegal. Chapter 14, Section 102.1(A)(1)(d) of Louisiana's Revised Statutes, for example, states that anyone who abandons an animal is guilty of the crime of cruelty to animals.
On Tuesday, September 6, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reportedly issued a mandatory evacuation order and authorized police to remove people from their homes regardless of the residents' wishes, according to CNN. Although Lt. Gen. Russel Honore—Commander of the First U.S. Army and the man in charge in New Orleans—apparently stated that his military units will not carry out such evacuations, New Orleans police officers and other law enforcement agents may force city residents to abandon their animals when evacuating. Please ask Mayor Nagin to ensure that his beleaguered constitutents are allowed to bring their companion animals along should they be evacuated:
The Honorable Ray Nagin
Mayor of New Orleans
Send an e-mail to the Mayor's Office here
You can improve the lives of dogs and cats suffering from cruelty and neglect.
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PETA's House Government Reform Committee Testimony
Heroes of the Storm
Stars Urge Officials to Take Action to Protect Animals in Disasters in PETA Ad
Read the Latest News From the Gulf Coast
Listen to PETA's Reports From New Orleans
Watch Footage of PETA's Life-Saving Work
See Pictures of PETA's Rescue Work
