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September 18, 2005, 1 p.m.: PETA Team Saves 24 More Animals in ‘Exceptional’ Day
Saturday was an “exceptional day,” team leader Laura Brown said in her report early this morning, with the rescue of 24 more animals from certain death in flooded, filthy homes in New Orleans by the PETA team.
But with nearly three weeks having passed since Katrina’s landfall—and in many cases, since animals’ last access to food and water—the death toll is rising, and the need for the government’s help in rescuing animals is dire.
PETA’s rescuers split into two teams on Saturday, and leader Laura Brown’s group began its day with the discovery of yet another dead dog who had not only been abandoned inside a home, but also sentenced to a certain death inside a locked crate. The cocker spaniel had been tossed into the crate on the floor, and a ladder had been wedged in front of the door, leaving the dog with no chance of escaping or surviving.
Kind National Guard officials directed Laura’s team to its next stop, where two dogs were poking their heads out of an upper-level window. The team used crowbars to break through the home’s front door and right away spotted what they thought was an overturned piece of furniture. Upon closer inspection, however, they realized that they were looking at the rotting remains of a 100-pound mastiff. Moving upstairs, the team found and rescued two emaciated pit bulls and a shepherd mix whose eyes were infected.
The team then rescued a Labrador mix from a locked bedroom, where she had been left with enough food and water for several weeks. Laura found a pregnant pit bull locked inside a bathroom at a neighboring house. An industrial fan had been wedged in front of the bathroom door, and after team member Caleb Wheeldon cleared the way, the “sweet and friendly” dog was freed. Minutes later, the team also rescued a 5-pound Chihuahua from her guardians’ trashed home.
Laura said that the team has found many pit bulls in the city in the course of their work there and that many of the dogs are in “very bad” condition and covered with scars—they’re largely being bred and fought in dogfights, Laura believes. Three such animals were found locked inside one house. After rescuing two male dogs, Laura said that the team heard someone “whimpering” in the distance. A few steps up the home’s staircase they found the source of the pitiful sound—a pit bull had been left tethered to the stairwell’s hand rail. She had no access to food and water, and she was the fourth such dog found by the team tethered or crated inside a flooded home with no chance of escaping and surviving. “It’s bad enough to leave animals” abandoned in homes when disaster strikes, Laura said, “but these dogs were certain to die” by being left confined as they were. Thankfully, our team arrived in time for this dog, and she was quickly given food and water and a comfortable place to nap next to her housemates.
Jessica Cochran led PETA’s second team through a day of rescuing aggressive dogs whom other agencies were afraid to rescue and had left behind in abandoned homes. Laura said that Jessica “does an amazing job of calming and comforting” these animals with her patient, kind approach. Laura and the team “learn something from watching Jessica” every day as she coaxes apprehensive dogs into carriers and to safety in “the least traumatic way” for the animals.
Saturday was no different, as Jessica rescued a Rottweiler who had been left tethered for weeks to a home’s front porch and who had “lost all of her senses” in the meantime. Jessica’s team then pulled two surviving pit bulls from a home where four other dogs had perished.
Laura and Jessica’s teams then met up at day’s end to rescue a 3-pound Chihuahua who was hiding under a bed. Team member Matt Mongiello scooped up the dog, who “looked like a miniature deer,” according to Laura, and “just wanted to be held so badly” after she was rescued.
Before leaving the home, however, Laura said that the team “could smell death” and investigated. In a back bedroom, Laura found the rotting remains of the rescued dog’s companion, another tiny Chihuahua. The blood stains around the survivor’s muzzle suggested that the dog had, like so many other dogs, taken to cannibalizing her peer’s remains in order to survive.
The tiny dog sat on team members’ laps as they transported the rest of the rescued dogs from that day to be checked in to a holding facility and examined by veterinarians. As positive as Saturday had been for the team with regard to animals rescued, Laura couldn’t help but reflect on the Chihuahuas and how they “easily would have fit in [their guardian’s] hand” and would have been very “easy to evacuate” as Katrina approached.
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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
