HelpingAnimals.com // Features // Latest News
September 10, 2005, 3 p.m.: PETA Team Pulls Animals From “Intense, War Zone-Like Setting”
"It's a surreal environment" in the section of New Orleans that PETA's team is working in, reports team leader Laura Brown. Comparing the scene there to a "war zone," with military helicopters overhead and convoys of armed officers set up virtually everywhere, Brown said that the Louisiana National Guard granted the team permission to use crow bars to break into flooded homes where owners notified us animals were left behind.
Working amid filth, "incredibly hot" weather, and the stench rising from contaminated floodwaters, the PETA team first found a terrified chow missing his left eye and hiding in sewage collected under his guardians' crushed home. He was so frightened that he had to be live-trapped out of the wreckage with wet food and loaded into one of our rescue vans, where he was given a comfortable, air-conditioned place to rest and take what was likely his first drink of fresh water in well over a week.
The crow bars came out at the team's second stop, a boarded up, waste-strewn home whose only remaining occupant was a dog who had survived on whatever she could find in her guardians' overturned trash can. The scared dog tucked her tail between her legs and took shelter under a kitchen table as our team—the first faces, human or otherwise, that she had seen since August 29—entered the residence. After a few minutes and some coaxing by our team's second-in-command, field officer Jessica Cochran, this dog joined the chow in our van and immediately lay down. She could finally rest.
While driving to its third stop, our team found an emaciated dog, tail tucked between her legs, running amid the debris on a neighboring street. As soon as she saw our team, Laura said, the dog came running and quickly "flopped out" and lay on her back to get a scratch on her stomach. The dog was clearly relieved to finally be rescued—Laura said that she showered the team members with playful nibbles on their chins and licks on their faces.
The team later met its most dire challenge yet: At one of its stops, it found two dogs kept locked in a hutch raised off the ground in a backyard shed. It was clear to our team that the dogs had likely been confined to the filthy enclosure for close to two weeks. Despite their ordeal, the dogs were apparently very sweet and quickly jumped into Laura's and Jessica's arms.
After saving 10 dogs in a matter of hours and loading another eight rescued dogs into its air-conditioned van—a vital commodity in short supply in New Orleans—the team began the treacherous drive back to the animal holding center, dodging splintered trees, overturned cars, and downed power lines along the way. Before the team arrived, its 19th passenger arrived in the form of a filthy, stray German shepherd that team member Matt Mongiello spotted rummaging through trash.
You can improve the lives of dogs and cats suffering from cruelty and neglect.
Forward this to friends.
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
