9-15

Today was the tipping point. Some honest blogs from wildcat rescuers, a few gruesome images, a pissed-off billionaire, and suddenly Homeland Security is calling a blogger/rescuer, asking him how they can help. I talked to that same official more than a week ago, and expressed myself clearly and forcefully. He said the military could whip things into shape. Well, unimaginable suffering later...

I guess a better blog design, plus being a web server dude, plus being right there in the thick of things, plus, well, timing, It's the tipping point. Very close to too late, and very much too late.

I've run out of adjectives. Barbaric, appalling, monstrous, unimaginable, unconscionable, gruesome, apocalyptic, holocaustesque.

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I've followed the pet rescue snafus extremely closely online and in the media. I have not been so affected, emotionally and politically, ever.

I am asking for help to save the lives of thousands of trapped and abandoned animals in the deserted city of New Orleans. I've contacted media, blogged, and called. The issue is getting a lot of "human interest" coverage, but the dire situation on the ground is exactly paralleling the human tragedy that unfolded last week.

Anyone is welcome to use the information I've compiled in their own emails, blogs, or phone calls. I can provide factual data and sources. If you have contacts in the media, I'd be happy to provide them information. I am so frustrated to not be a more prominent writer or have influential contacts right now. It's a powerless feeling. I'm learning a great deal about grassroots activism, bureauracy, spin, passing the buck, and the value of celebrity spokesmodels.

Below are "talking points" I've compiled on the current situation. I'm a excellent fact-checker, and I vouch for the accuracy of this information. I provide two email template texts, one for media and one for political and governmental agencies.

Take what you want and leave the rest. Believe me, I understand how it feels to get this sort of plea. There's this one woman who sends me so many action alerts on Darfur I dread them. Now I understand why she does it.

Gist of our plea: Now that they have evacuated so many humans, its time to save their best friends. The death toll of humans is much lower than expected, but not evacuating the pets has made the animal death toll unimaginable.

Rescue and Reference Links
Here is the best information coming out of New Orleans, also where to donate. These groups have created a central, shared database for reporting stranded pets.

I have been most active in a message-based community at nola.com
http://www.nola.com/forums/animals/index.ssf
Noah's Wish: http://noahswish.org/
Best Friends http://bestfriends.org/ (most truthful reporting)
ASPCA: http://www.aspca.org/
Humane Society: http://www.hsus.org/
United Animal Nations: http://www.uan.org/
http://www.pasadosafehaven.org/NEWS/NEWS.htm/ (grim, accurate)
Louisiana Vet Medicine (active rescue) http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/
Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescue Fund https://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=141400
http://www.petfinder.com/disaster/
http://www.uan.org/ears/action_report.html
http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pa_disaster_relief
http://animaltheory.blogspot.com/
http://katrinacalls.blogspot.com/
http://www.katrinapetsneedhelp.com
United Animal Nations - ears.org

Sample emails for (a) media (b) government

Hello,

Thanks for the attention your reporters have given to the abandoned-pet crisis in New Orleans. On September 7, the Humane Society issued an urgent plea for the help and cooperation of governmental agencies because time is running out and rescue efforts have been sporadic, and in many cases, impeded.

I believe this is a huge story. That so many pets may perish for the lack of a concerted effort to save tham parallels the heartbreaking inefficiency in assisting the people of New Orleans last week. If the city, state, and governmental organizations are seen being proactive about saving lives of valued animals, it will count somewhat toward ameliorating the terrible failures that plagued the initial disaster relief effort.

In that same vein, allowing evacuees to take their pets out of the city is in the city's best interests, as well as being the compassionate, right thing to do.

If only a fraction of the men in various military and governmental organizations on the ground now were tasked with animal rescue, enormous time, energy, and resources can be saved -- because the consequences of leaving animals in homes and on streets to starve will have to be dealt with amid the cleanup. Not to mention the emotional and public relations fallout when New Orleneans are finaly allowed to return to their homes and confront indescribable tableaus of suffering.

It feels to me as though it's been easy to marginalize the outcry over the plight of animals, but it is inextricable from the human suffering and loss. And, as so many are still alive and trapped, it has become symbolic of gratuitous, preventable loss on top of the catastrophic losses victims have already experienced.

Sometimes all it takes is one official in a position of power to step forward and get the ball rolling by allocating resources and issuing clear directives. The media can help a great deal if this issue is framed with the urgency and soberness it requires. Heartbreaking vignettes or heartwarming reunions, and images of stranded animals waiting for help, only go so far. This is actually a significant public policy issue, and should be covered as such.

Thank you,
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As you're aware, only sporadic, small, nongovernmental animal rescue efforts have entered New Orleans. As you're also aware, there has been arbitrary and contradictory on-the-ground decisionmaking both about allowing evacuees to take pets with them and about allocating any governmental resources to aiding animal rescue efforts.

That so many pets may perish for the lack of a concerted effort to save tham parallels the heartbreaking inefficiency in assisting the people of New Orleans last week. If the city, state, and governmental organizations are seen being proactive about saving lives of valued animals, it will count somewhat toward ameliorating the terrible failures that plagued the initial disaster relief effort.

Allowing evacuees to take their pets out of the city is in the city's best interests, as well as being the compassionate, right thing to do. Animals will have to be dealt with, dead or alive, and the most efficient policy is to keep animals together with their owners rather than staging two rescue efforts or allowing thousands of pets to die slowly.

It's easy to marginalize the outcry over the plight of animals, but it is inextricable from the human suffering and loss. And, as so many are still alive and trapped, it has become symbolic of gratuitous, preventable loss on top of the catastrophic losses victims have already experienced.
You are in a unique position of power and visibiluity to step forward and get the ball rolling. This is actually a significant public policy issue, and should be treated as such.

Thank you,

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Talking Points (for phone or email contacts, adapt to taste)

* Life and death urgency. New York Times reports 50,000 stranded animals. On Thursday, Humane Society in Times article predicted "massive die-off" starting Sunday.

* FEMA, Homeland Security, Coast Guard, and law enforcement representatives reached by phone express sympathy, but say their hand are tied in terms of allocating equipment and manpower unless Louisiana Governor Blanco issues a directive.

* Even now, only a few boats and animal rescue teams have access to flooded areas, and house-to-house searches are painfully slow. Best Friends animal rescue has the only boat team searching in St. Bernard Parish, and, while they saw "thousands" of desperate, starving animals, they could only rescue 10 in a full days' work.

* On September 7, the Humane Society issued an urgent plea for the help and cooperation of governmental agencies because time is running out and rescue efforts have been sporadic, and in many cases, impeded.
NO HELP HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED OR MOBILIZED BY STATE AUTHORIIES AS OF SEPTEMBER 10

* That so many pets may perish for the lack of a concerted effort to save tham parallels the heartbreaking inefficiency in assisting the people of New Orleans last week.

* If the city, state, and governmental organizations are seen being proactive about saving lives of valued animals, it will count somewhat toward ameliorating the terrible failures that plagued the initial disaster relief effort.

* There has been arbitrary and contradictory on-the-ground decisionmaking both about allowing evacuees to take pets with them and about allocating any governmental resources to aiding animal rescue efforts.

* Allowing evacuees to take their pets out of the city is in the city's best interests, as well as being the compassionate, right thing to do. Animals will have to be dealt with, dead or alive, and the most efficient policy is to keep animals together with their owners rather than staging two rescue efforts or allowing pets to die slowly.

* Sometimes all it takes is one official in a position of power to step forward and get the ball rolling by allocating resources and issuing clear directives. The media can help a great deal if this issue is framed with the urgency and soberness it requires. Heartbreaking vignettes or heartwarming reunions, and images of stranded animals waiting for help, only go so far.

* This is actually a significant public policy issue, and should be treated as such.

* It's easy to marginalize the outcry over the plight of animals, but it is inextricable from the human suffering and loss. And, as so many are still alive and trapped, it has become symbolic of gratuitous, preventable loss on top of the catastrophic losses victims have already experienced.

* As time passes, each animal rescued requires more health resources. A full-scale rescue NOW is a more efficient and human use of limited resources.

* If only a fraction of the men in various military and governmental organizations on the ground now were tasked with animal rescue, enormous time, energy, and resources can be saved -- because the consequences of leaving animals in homes and on streets to starve will have to be dealt with amid the cleanup.

* Not to mention the emotional and public relations fallout when New Orleneans are finaly allowed to return to their homes and confront indescribable tableaus of suffering.

* Rescuers have now combed the city, spending hundreds of millions to retrieve and care for human life. Now, before retrieving the dead, is a tiny window of opportunity to rescue the only living things still in the city

*Confirmed shootings of tail-wagging dogs in St. Bernard Parish (video avaialable Dallas News). Inability of New Orleans law enforcement to clearly state they will not shoot animals (in CNN interview with Anderson Cooper)

* Whether an animal is rescued and loved, or greeted with a shortgun, as in St. Bernard Parish, is entirely ad-hoc and situational. There ust be a clear directive to preserve life.

* Must allocate boats and manpower. Reassuring frantic pet owners that "people are searching" is a whitewash. Urgent need for shallow water boats at Gonzales Lamar-Dixon Expo Center 9039 St Landry Rd (HSUS, ASPCA staging area)

* Internet-based groups seem to have better information on the staging, shelter, and abandoned animal locations than officials on the ground

* We speak for the hundreds of thousand of evacuees who lack the logistical, technological, or emotional means to advocate on their own pets' behalf

* Pet owners are without traditional comfort of home, community, or a hope that anyone is left in the city taking care of their pet

* Evacuating the city of witnesses and a proposed media blackout are hiding the true scope of the problem from the public

* Grave possibility that beloved pets will be declared a "health risk" and slaughtered

* Local law enforcement have made erroneous statements about animals, claiming they are dangerous or diseased. One sheriff on NPR seemed to think that thirsty, starving dogs would somehow spontaneously become "rabid," even though they have been trapped in homes, alone.

* Numbers of abandoned animals largely due to Government's failure to allow evacuation with pets ... when animal shelters and foster homes nationwide had mobilized care and space for evacuees' pets

* False data being provided to media about number of animals rescued. Most of the "thousands" rescued were animals already in local shelters or veterinary facilities. On-the-ground rescues inside hard-hit communities number around 500 animals AMONG ALL THE RESCUE GROUPS IN LOUISIANA

* Lack of communication, cooperation, and concerted effort among govermental agencies on the ground

* Thousands of armed men tasked with guarding property while animals die

* Pets forcibly removed during evacuation from the owners who loved them enough to evacuate with them and care for them in squalor and chaos..still trapped inside locked-down Superdome

* Legal implications, both criminal and civil, for wholesale negligence and grievous, preventable loss of animal life

* Governental agencies reached by phone seem to think this is a numbers game, like some poll they're taking, or a "fringe," "animal lovers" issue. This is, in fact, a major policy and planning failure issue, a human and humane issue, and a test and reflection of our humanity, compassion, and priorities as a society and a species

* Animals can't mass at the Convention Center and plead for rescue. We speak for the invisible, the forgotten, and the voiceless.

* Crisis is uniquely extreme in that the people who love these animals most are completely politically disenfranchised and dispersed. They are also PHYSICALLY PREVENTED from rescuing their own animals by the government, which PLACES THE SUFFERING AND DEATHS OF THOSE PETS SQUARELY ON THE HANDS OF AUTHORITIES

* Before this, ONE stranded pet on a rooftop or in a tree would be a major human-interest news story. And communities would rally to save and comfort the animal. BUT THE SUFFERING OF TENS OF THOUSANDS IS MARGINALIZED AND MINIMIZED.

* Plight of these animals is unconscionable, unneccessary, and unthinkable in the United States of America. We must rise to our responsibility and our duty.

* The current Louisiana Revised Statutes, in pertinent part, read as follows. 14:102.1. Cruelty to animals; simple and aggravated A.(1) Any person who intentionally or with criminal negligence commits any of the following shall be guilty of simple cruelty to animals: ***** (c) Having charge, custody, or possession of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, unjustifiably fails to provide it with proper food, proper drink, proper shelter, or proper veterinary care. (d) Abandons any animal. A person shall not be considered to have abandoned an animal if he delivers to an animal control center an animal which he found running at large. ***** (2)(a) Whoever commits the crime of simple cruelty to animals shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both. (b) In addition to any other penalty imposed, a person who commits the crime of cruelty to animals shall be ordered to perform five eight-hour days of court-approved community service. The community service requirement shall not be suspended.