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September 15, 2005, 12 p.m.: PETA Team Helps 46 More Animals
Tuesday morning found PETA's team in New Orleans breaking through countless more doors and windows to rescue abandoned and dying animals. The team's first rescue was of a terrified and matted cat, Patches, who they found hiding amid her waste in a litter box. She had been in the "unbearably hot" home for 12 days. Patches was loaded into a carrier and covered with a sheet, which helped calm her nerves as she was passed by team members through the broken panes of the home's glass front door.Two dogs were then pulled from the upper floor of a detached garage, where mold had covered their tiny space and everything in it. Team member Caleb Wheeldon called the second dog's rescue "the most amazing rescue I've ever seen," as team leader Laura Brown and member Jessica Cochran used a blanket to encourage the wary animal into a carrier. The dogs were then moved to our van, where they enjoyed some food and water together before dozing off.
The team then found a highly territorial mastiff in the attic of a flooded home. Laura said in her report that she thought the dog didn't appear to have any way of accessing the space and wondered if the floodwaters had lifted the dog up that high. The team could only leave food and water for the dog and return later to use a live-trap to rescue him. Laura wondered aloud why the dog's guardians had left a massive, unopened bag of dog food in their kitchen when abandoning the animal, instead of at least allowing him access to it.
Next, a semi-feral pug who the team had first met a day earlier was finally rescued. The team saw her sitting on the front porch of her guardians' crushed home. "She just wanted in her home," Laura said, so the team opened the door for her and let her run around inside before "wrapping her like a burrito" in a blanket and setting her up in the van.
Two poodles, who Laura said were so tiny that they could have "easily been evacuated in a handbag" by their guardians, were then pulled to safety from an apartment complex. The male dog showered the team with kisses and wagged his tail as he was rescued, but the female poodle was apparently skittish and took some coaxing before she could be scooped up by Laura.
The next animal to be rescued was an old beagle who was missing some of her teeth and was suffering from an eye infection. The team found her sitting on the porch of yet another wrecked home. Next door, the team broke into a home in order to save a sick terrier who they found hiding under a bed. Two more rescued dogs were added to the van minutes later.
And then, in a scene that team member Jason Baker called "absolutely heartbreaking and maddening," the team found a cat hiding in her guardians' bedroom, next to an animal carrier. "It breaks your heart," Jason said, "to see an animal left behind when the means to take her to safety and spare her 15 days of fear and no access to food and water were right there to be used." The cat was found huddled under the bed and had become caught by one of her legs in the box springs. She was soon convinced to come with our team.
Tuesday's final stop for the team found them dropping food and water for two highly aggressive dogs in an attempt to "make friends" with the animals and facilitate their later rescue. Inside the home, however, the team found a dead rabbit slumped against the side of the soggy and moldy cage that her guardians had left her behind in.
On Wednesday, with room at temporary sheltering facilities for only the animals suffering from dire illnesses or injuries, the team left food and water for 22 dogs and 12 cats. They also rescued one cat from underneath a Dumpster and gave food and water to a handful of New Orleans residents who had stayed behind with their dogs throughout the disaster.
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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
