WAVELAND, Miss. – They were some of Hurricane Katrina’s smallest and most helpless victims, alerted to the power of the storm long before most people but unable to flee on their own.
The Aug. 29 storm and its aftermath proved deadly for the inhabitants of the Waveland Animal Shelter, the only such facility in Hancock County, as well as heart-breaking for many pet owners. Director Renee Lick said most of the animals in the shelter at the time of the storm died, but declined to provide an exact figure.
The tragedy was a small one when held up against the unfathomable measuring stick set by Katrina. No one is even willing to hazard a guess at how many pets and other animals died in the storm, but the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates more than 15,000 dogs, cats, horses, livestock and other animals were rescued in the roughly 90,000 square miles of Gulf Coast hammered by the hurricane and whisked off to more than 300 shelters in more than 40 states.
But the deaths and destruction in Waveland continue to reverberate, and elected officials and animal rights advocates are working to ensure the tragedy will never be repeated by pushing for a new facility miles inland that would be managed by the county.
“It would make everybody’s lives better if they had a better animal control shelter here,” said Bay St. Louis veterinarian Charles West, who is on the board of the Friends of the Animal Shelter, which is spearheading the campaign.
A cat at the shelter reaches through the door of its cage. (John Brecher / MSNBC.com)
A push for a new animal shelter in Hancock County was already under way before Katrina, but it has intensified since the storm flooded the building with more than 5 feet of water, virtually ruining the 30-year-old facility.
A depressing destination
Months later, the shelter, which is located next to a sewage treatment plant and bordered on one side by a drainage ditch filled with fetid water, remains a depressing destination for pets whose owners can't care for them or can't be found.
Under the current difficult conditions, the shelter has a capacity of about 35 animals, Lick told MSNBC.com during a recent tour of the site.
The shelter’s canines are kept in cages around the perimeter of the shelter as well as in indoor kennels. Cats -- some calmly gazing out at visitors, others visibly distressed -- are housed just a few feet away though an open door.
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And operations are threadbare. Lick said the shelter lost two animal control vehicles to Katrina and, although it has been able to add one animal control officer to its staff, still has just four officers -- two for the county, one for Bay St. Louis and one for Waveland.
A slow rebuilding effort
As the region struggles to rebuild homes and businesses, the Hancock County Board of Supervisors has also passed a resolution stating its intent to build a new shelter.
President Rocky Pullman said the shelter “needs to be out of residential (areas). … And we've had animal activists come down and scream at us that this facility is unacceptable ... so we're trying to take the public's concern and move ahead.”
The county is eyeing land in the Stennis buffer zone, an unpopulated area around NASA’s nearby missile testing facility for the new shelter, he said.
Dr. Brigid Elcos, the Mississippi State public health veterinarian, said state officials had applied on Hancock County’s behalf for an ASPCA grant of $500,000 for a new shelter. However, the application stipulated that county authorities develop an emergency fund and plan for any future natural disasters.
“We can address this, we can make a difference, we can do it this time,” said Elcos, who added that the destruction in Hancock County was “probably the worst” along the Gulf Coast.
The Bucks-Mont Bay-Waveland Katrina Relief Project, a Pennsylvania-based group comprised of community leaders, also is conducting a fundraising drive to help build the new animal shelter for this shattered town.
Lick conceded the current shelter is crumbling and said she fully supports the drive for a new facility.
Coming up with a plan
The state had been working with local authorities for several years prior to Katrina in an attempt to formulate emergency evacuation plans, but had yet to develop anything concrete when the storm pounded the coast, according to Dr. Jim Watson, the state veterinarian with the Mississippi Board of Animal Health.
Katrina provided a fresh impetus for those efforts.
“We’re trying to encourage the local community … to have a plan so that we won’t be in a position where we (state authorities) have to go down and rescue animals in an emergency-type of situation,” Watson said.
Doll Stanley, the Mississippi-based regional director of the nonprofit animals rights group In Defense of Animals, said the lack of disaster plans was accompanied by a broad failure to coordinate rescue efforts throughout the Gulf Coast region.
“The disaster that followed the disaster was as disheartening to me (as the storm),” she said.
Several people interviewed for this article said that a new animal shelter – well-equipped and far out of the flood zone – would help prevent a repeat performance in Hancock County.
“If we had a better animal shelter, we wouldn’t have had half the problems we’d had in this storm,” said West, who referred to the current shelter as a “dead end,” said.
Safety for animals can also translate to safety of people, Elcos said
“One of the lessons from all of this is that a lot of people won’t evacuate if they can’t take their pets and don’t know where to go,” she said.
Waveland shelter criticized
Stanley, of In Defense of Animals, is highly critical of the Waveland shelter’s handling of the animal crisis after Katrina, saying that officials failed to actively coordinate with the many outside animal protection groups that poured in after the storm. She said she plans to urge the City Council to fire Lick and close the shelter.
Lick responds by saying she and her staff were only able to work with resources they had and that, besides, planning for an unprecedented disaster like Katrina was impossible.
“Everything has their feelings and their criticisms on this,” Lick said. “We’ve never had this type of disaster. … It’s sad, but this was a learning experience.”
West, who runs two of the four veterinary clinics in the county, agreed the shelter had problems before the storm, but said he believed they were “institutional” and weren't attributable to any individual.
Lessons learned
Watson, the state veterinarian, said that Katrina had forced increased coordination between the state and local levels, which he hoped would help officials and animal owners plan ahead for future emergencies.
Officials said the relationships forged with other shelters across the United States in Katrina’s aftermath would better enable animals to be cared for and transported out of the area in a timely manner.
“We’ve never had and hope we never have to go through this again. … Now we know what to do the next time,” said Lick, a no-nonsense former Waveland police officer.
Tara High, director of the Southern Mississippi Humane Society in nearby Gulfport, agreed.
“In the future, we’ll definitely be able to have more options in evacuating our animals and having a plan in place to help the community deal with its pets, for people to know their pets will be safe,” she said.
Caring for the survivors
For now, though, attention has been turned to rescuing and caring for the storm’s traumatized survivors, both inside and outside of Gulf Coast shelters.
“They’ll freak out if you go up and try to fill up their water bucket," Lick said. "… (They) act like they’ve been beaten.”
“You know the ones that went through it (the storm) and the ones that didn’t,” she added.
West, the veterinarian, said he had seen an increase in respiratory illness – an affliction also seen in Gulf Coast residents -- since Katrina. He said he had also treated many dogs whose toenails had been pulled off on the metal steps of FEMA trailers. On the positive side, West said he had seen a decrease in pets struck by cars over the past several months.
Just as many Gulf Coast residents who have relied on help from the government and nonprofit groups after their lives were shattered by Katrina, local animals also need a helping hand.
“Something I tell people is that it’s not just the animals – we’ve got to come back to them too,” Lick said.
Changing the face of crime
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Some of this tragedy could have been avoided if organisations such as the Red Cross had accepted animals at their shelters or worked with animal welfare agencies to set up tandem shelters. Too many animals were left behind to fend for themselves simply because their people had nowhere to bring them. And some people paid the ultimate price, with their lives, by staying behind because they would not abandon their beloved family members.
Please human rescue agencies, please accommodate also the people who have pets. Not everyone can find or afford a "pet friendly" motel and not everyone has relatives out of state.
Sandra Bauer (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:34:51 PM)
you can donate to the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi at http://hssm.org/
rosemary - newry,me (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:40:08 PM)
There are many shelters in the LA and MS area that need help.... not unlike the one mentioned here. You can help by donating to the ASPCA and designate the donation as for natural disaster relief. There is always a need!
Melanie Hoover, Syracuse NY (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:45:49 PM)
Waveland Animal Shelter
(228) 467-0230
322 Gulfside St
Waveland, MS 39576
There you go! And thanks
Denise, Gulf Shores, AL (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:47:12 PM)
People need to help the animals instead of just thinking of themselves!! People can survive on their own, Pets can only survive through people.
Jane Doe, Nacogdoches, TX (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:50:17 PM)
It saddens me hearing about those poor animals. We have 2 dogs of our own and I don't think I could ever leave them behind. They are our children! I don't know if everyone saw the ABC Home Edition where the family rescued a lot of animals after the tragedy. I hope those people that promised shelter to those animals and didn't do so, go to jail for ever!
Jessi, Gray, ME (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:51:25 PM)
Being an animal lover and owner, we were apalled that so many pets were left behind to fend for themselves. We tried to adopt Katrina dogs (three of them) and were told that they could not be adopted NOR fostered because they held out hope of reuniting them with their owners - THREE MONTHS LATER. Help us help them... at least put them in loving homes and take them from their cages while you continue to hunt for their owners! Tragic! Absolutely tragic for those poor animals.
Elizabeth, St. Louis, Missouri (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:51:44 PM)
I have been in the veterinary support staff field for 12 years now. During Katrina, I watched in horror as people wasted away and died before my very eyes. Newborns without colostrum from their moms, moms without milk or water for themselves (so breast feeding was never a possibility); elderly & diabetics going into shock, I vowed I would never vote again. I agonized and prayed every minute of every day. I read the stories about the paramedics there for a convention who pooled what little finance they had left which equalled a substantial sum of money to buy the use of the buses, and then watched city officials and police block the buses. After watching these horror, I knew if this is what the people are going through, imagine my beloved animals. Then hope arrived, people with boats and make shift vehicles, picking up the people and animals. Now this again. Where the heck is President Bush? Doesn't he have family? Doesn't he have friends, and animals? This is February for crying out loud. WHERE IS MY HARD EARNED MONEY GOING? WHY ISN'T HE SENDING IN THE MILITARY TO HELP? WHAT THE HEY IS GOING ON WITH THIS COUNTRY????
Sharron, Berlin, Connecticut, USA (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:53:21 PM)
To Linda, and others with the same question:
There are shelters all over the US that have wonderful animals waiting for love and a good home. Whether they are Katrina animals or not, they all deserve a chance. Please pick a shelter near you and find a loving and deserving pet.
Wendy Roberts, Barre, MA (Sent Jan 31, 2006 4:55:42 PM)
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals."
- Mahatma Gandhi
John Iannuzzi, Armonk New York (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:03:14 PM)
Thanks you for this wonderful story. Is there a website to view animals for adoption??
Randi DeMinno - New City, NY (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:05:10 PM)
Before I even read your article I tried to go to the Humane Society Website & look for ways to adopt any of the animals to be left behind. I was greatly dissapointed to see that they were not accepting applications for adoption, I would be more than willing to shellout the airline ticket to have one of these dogs sent to me that need a good home. If they want something done how about taking some of us up on our offer who want these animals and give them to us. I'm sure any of the local Humane Societies near those of uswho want these dogs could do a "background check"-----what is the hold up?
Keana, Pittsbrugh PA (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:08:33 PM)
How can I help???.. I live in Lighthouse Point, Florida. I have 3 dogs, and I know how I feel about them.
JUDY gOODMAN (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:09:16 PM)
Do not forget your own area animal shelters - they are most always in need also. Helping animals is a nationwide need not just in the gulf. I pray that our country has learned a lesson from all of this. I know that the State of Pennsylvania is establishing emergency plans for the animals in the counties across the state. Hope the nation follows this as well.
Candy, Reading, Pa (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:09:27 PM)
The shelter's director sounds alike like Mike Brown, making excuses for being completely unprepared. They clearly need a new shelter and a new director.
Mara, Alexandria VA (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:09:37 PM)
The American Human Society and the ASPCA are both very good groups that have done alot for the four legged victims of Katrina. I have sent my donations to them.
Jonathan Plourde (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:12:42 PM)
I would like to know if I can adopt one of the dogs. I don't have the money to ship it out here but I do have a large home with a great yard. I would be happy to take one of them out of there.
Tom , Phoenix , AZ (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:16:33 PM)
Great article and I along with others believe (know) that animals are family. No matter what happens your pet will love you and give loyalty to you until the bitter end. To forsake them is just cruel.
sue (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:24:47 PM)
To bad all those animals didnt have county Licenses and/or $14 micro chips they could be with the owners and / or there emergency contact parties!
Dont blame the government, place the responsibility
with the ir-responsible pet owners!
"Sodapop" Cpt..USAFR Newport, Oregon (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:28:08 PM)
For information on the status of rescued pets, your best resource is petfinder.com. Donations are still being accepted at bestfriends.org or ASPCA.com.
Amelia Horne Southfield, MI (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:40:16 PM)
Thank-you for writing this article, it is a real shame that more could not have been done sooner. I would like to see you include names and addresses of people or or organizations for contact to make donations. An article like this shoudl include that automatically.
Nannette Brule, 208 West Marcellus St, Syracuse, NY 13204 (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:42:05 PM)
It's a damn shame! I applaud the Ghandi remark.
Jennifer McCowen (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:44:20 PM)
This is so sad.
We left on a long-planned trip prior to the storm,
when predictions were still towards a Pensacola
landfall. We boarded our 15 year old, three legged
Siberian husky at a kennel in Pass Christian, and were
off. Then the storm hit and I could not get in touch
with the kennel. I posted a question on the Sun
Herald blog about it and someone replied that the
kennel owners (the Russells of Pass Christian Pet
Care, God bless them) evacuated with 80 dogs(!) and
gave me an address where I could find my dog.
After speaking to the Russells, we found out that
their evacuation location started filling with water,
and so they toted 80 dogs in crates up to the second
floor. They all survived, which (tragically) cannot
be said of other animals who were boarded. The
Russells were even kind enough to evacuate our dog
to another kennel, where a generator was being
used to run AC for the older dogs in the summer
heat. That's where we found our guy, and he's with
us now.
J., Bay Saint Louis MS (Sent Jan 31, 2006 5:47:21 PM)
If you go to www.petfinder.com you can see many adoptable (and adorable!) pets available from the Hurricanes.
Ann, Westport, CT (Sent Jan 31, 2006 6:14:00 PM)
The best thing to do to help animals affected by Hurricane Katrina is to donate to or adopt from your local animal shelter. Humane Societies throughout the country responded the need of those in the South. There are Katrina Kitties and dogs still waiting to be adopted all over the U.S. Adopting ANY animal from your local shelter helps by freeing up space and resources so we can continue to help animals in need - wherever they may be.
Melissa, Columbus, Ohio (Sent Jan 31, 2006 6:15:58 PM)
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