Guest guest Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Three posts on pets and Katrina below. Even the liberal media has had nothing on the other family members (pets) or wildlife. Although did include links to animal charities. So please suggest this coverage to the media and note JJSwans suggestion below that Red Cross, etc. coordinates with animal groups so if you are donating please add that suggestion. thanks, - Katrina By JJswans - JJswans Before Hurricane Katrina hit land, a televised news report said that officials were warning that anyone who abandoned their animals would be charged with animal cruelty. Since animals are usually the last thing that government officials, and the news media, concern themselves with, it was encouraging to see a preemptive attempt to protect potential animal victims. An unknown number of people risked their own lives by staying with their animals, and that too was encouraging to see, though it brought to mind the importance of increasing the numbers of shelters that would allow animals, and increasing attempts to get such information out to animal guardians that there are shelters that will help. What was discouraging is how many stories are now emerging about people that were forced to make a choice between abandoning their animals in order to be allowed to enter a shelter set up for humans, or risking their own lives by remaining outside of the shelter with their animals. How can officials tell someone they must abandon their animals after stating that such abandonment would mean charges of animal cruelty? It is estimated that 60 percent of the U.S. population has a companion animal. Eighty percent of that 60 percent have two or more companion animals. And yet shelters for humans don't take that into account - there are no contingencies for the furred, feathered, or scaled members of people's families which have proven to be medically and psychologically beneficial for their people. And if there was ever a time when people need the soothing and stabilizing effect that an animal can give, it's when they have lost everything they own, and their lives are in upheaval, such as the victims of Katrina. How difficult would it be for the Red Cross and the Salvation Army to join hands with the HSUS, the ASPCA, and other animal aid organizations who could supply crates/cages to be available at every Red Cross/Salvation Army shelter, along with food for the animals. If there were people that didn't want to be around the crated animals, they could even have non-animal sections of the shelters. Nothing made the need for disaster shelter reform more evident than the story seen on CNN of a small white poodle-type dog, standing on his hind legs, with front paws on the outside of an evacuation bus' closed door, begging to be allowed aboard. One can only guess if this was Snowball who had been taken away from a small boy as he got on an evacuation bus, as the child reportedly screamed for his dog. That dog didn't have a Snowball's chance in Hell. Please, send your donations to your favorite group, whether that be the HSUS or the Red Cross, or whoever - but include a request that those groups helping people, and those groups helping animals, ban together and help the entire family, which include both people and their companion animals. You can help by donating to the following groups - check their websites for updates: * Noah's Wish - www.noahswish.org/index.htm & www.noahswish.org/Donations.htm * United Animal Nations / EARS: Emergency Animal Rescue Service - www.uan.org/ears & https://secure.ga3.org/01/UAN_disaster_relief * American Humane Association - http://go.care2.com/36770 & http://go.care2.com/36770 * HSUS: Humane Society of the U.S. - www.hsus.org & https://secure.hsus.org/01/katrina_relief/nNp1S5l910mbj? * Best Friends Animal Society - http://news.bestfriends.org & www.bestfriends.org/donate . Also animals lost in the area affected by Katrina can be reported at email: hurricane or 435-644-3965 x 4455 www.petfinder.com/disaster -- best updates ------------------------------- AR-News (AT) googl (DOT) com [AR-News (AT) googl (DOT) com] On Behalf Of FeralPlace Saturday, September 03, 2005 10:22 PM undisclosed-recipients: [AR-News] Tell CNN to cover the plight of animals from Katrina Please email CNN and any other networks you can and ask them to report on the destiny of the animals left behind from the hurricane and on the rescue efforts to save them. This will help raise awareness and funds for these animals. http://www.cnn.com/feedback/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3303518/ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html --\ ---------- http://news./s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_pets & printer=1 Back to Story - Help Katrina Evacuees Distraught Over Pets By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press WriterSat Sep 3, 6:23 PM ET As Valerie Bennett was evacuated from a New Orleans hospital, rescuers told her there was no room in the boat for her dogs. She pleaded. " I offered him my wedding ring and my mom's wedding ring, " the 34-year-old nurse recalled Saturday. They wouldn't budge. She and her husband could bring only one item, and they already had a plastic tub containing the medicines her husband, a liver transplant recipient, needed to survive. Such emotional scenes were repeated perhaps thousands of times along the Gulf Coast last week as pet owners were forced to abandon their animals in the midst of evacuation. In one example reported last week by The Associated Press, a police officer took a dog from one little boy waiting to get on a bus in New Orleans. " Snowball! Snowball! " the boy cried until he vomited. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog. The fate of pets is a huge but underappreciated cause of anguish for storm survivors, said Richard Garfield, professor of international clinical nursing at New York's Columbia University. " People in shelters are worried about 'Did Fluffy get out?' " he said. " It's very distressing for people, wondering if their pets are isolated or starving. " Valerie Bennett left her dogs with an anesthesiologist who was taking care of about 30 staff members' pets on the roof of the hospital, Lindy Boggs Medical Center. The doctor euthanized some animals at the request of their owners, who feared they would be abandoned and starve to death. He set up a small gas chamber out of a plastic-wrapped dog kennel. " The bigger dogs were fighting it. Fighting the gas. It took them longer. When I saw that, I said 'I can't do it,' " said Bennett's husband, Lorne. But the anesthesiologist, a cat owner, promised to care for the other pets. " He said he'd stay there as long as he possibly could, " Valerie Bennett recalled, speaking from her husband's bedside at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital. The Bennetts had four animals, including their two beloved dogs — Lorne's English springer spaniel, Oreo, and Valerie's miniature dachshund, Lady. They moved to Slidell, La., in July when Valerie took a job at an organ transplant institute connected to Lindy Boggs. Lorne, a former paramedic, is disabled since undergoing a liver transplant in 2001. On Saturday, as Hurricane Katrina approached, both went to the hospital to help and took all four animals with them. Patients were evacuated starting Monday by rescue workers using small boats to traverse the floodwaters surrounding the hospital. On Wednesday night, the Bennetts were told they had to go, too. They fed their guinea pig and left it in its cage in a patient room. They couldn't refill its empty water bottle because the hospital's plumbing failed Sunday, they said. They poured food on the floor for the cat, but again no water. " I just hope that they forgive me, " Valerie Bennett cried. They handed the dogs to the anesthesiologist. Valerie got his last name but no cell phone number. " I wasn't thinking, " she said. But on Saturday afternoon, Valerie Bennett said she saw a posting on a Web site called petfinder.com that said the anesthesiologist was still at Lindy Boggs caring for the animals. On the Net: www.petfinder.com/disaster 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. 2005 Inc. All rights reserved. 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Guest guest Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 [Moderator's Note: I am breaking the rule of Asian news only but I haven't seen this on any other animal welfare/rights forums] Research Lost in Katrina Flood: A Newsmaker Interview With Paul K. Whelton, MD, PhD Sept. 22, 2005 Editor's Note: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, flood waters engulfing New Orleans laboratories may have damaged not only research facilities, but also destroyed irreplaceable data, tissue samples, and genetically engineered and other animals involved in ongoing medical studies. In addition to compromising this research and the information that can ultimately be gleaned from it, hurricane damage could in theory allow release of infected animals or other biohazards into the environment. An initial survey by the National Institutes of Health suggests that Katrina affected approximately 300 federally funded projects at New Orleans colleges and universities, cumulatively valued at more than $150 million, including 153 projects at Tulane and others at Louisiana State University (LSU). These include the Bogalusa Heart Study of cardiovascular risk factors, and ongoing studies of AIDS, cancer, and other conditions. When the power went out and back-up generators failed at a Tulane laboratory, cryopreserved tissue samples collected since 1973 in the Bogalusa Heart Study thawed and became useless for all but DNA analysis. For some Gulf Coast investigators, Katrina seems like deja vu, because Tropical Storm Allison severely damaged the Texas Medical Center in 2001, causing major interruptions and losses to ongoing research. During Katrina, the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine is reported to have lost approximately 8,000 rodents, dogs, and primates involved in studies. However, Tulane's National Primate Research Center in Covington, just north of New Orleans, reported that none of its 5,000 primates escaped. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bioweapons defense laboratories in areas affected by Katrina reported no breakdowns in security. To learn more about the implications of research disrupted by the hurricane, Medscape's Laurie Barclay interviewed Paul K. Whelton, MD, PhD, senior vice president for health sciences at Tulane University Health Sciences Center; professor of medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine; and professor of epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Whelton has been a lead investigator in many large observational epidemiologic studies and clinical trials, and since Katrina struck, he has been coordinating Tulane's response to the challenges faced by its research community. Medscape: What were the consequences of lost data and research animals because of severe flooding from Tropical Storm Allison, which damaged the Texas Medical Center (TMC) in 2001, and what progress has been made in reversing the effects of these losses? Dr. Whelton: I cannot speak for the institutions in the TMC but am aware that they faced a big challenge. Despite this, they remained a major force in biomedical research. Medscape: When Katrina struck, what measures were taken by researchers at Tulane and at other affected institutions to minimize losses and risks? Dr. Whelton: First we helicoptered about 2,000 people out safely, with no loss of life. As soon as we got the last patient, faculty member, staff member, student, and friend out alive, we focused our attention on the following in this order: first, working closely with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal partners; second, conducting a research assets inventory; third, removing or retaining in place vital research assets; fourth, providing supervised access to our buildings on a need-to-visit basis; fifth, informing our research community of progress and policies and assisting them in their efforts to continue their research; and sixth, starting strategic planning for the future of our research enterprise. Medscape: What were the losses to Tulane and other New Orleans institutions because of Katrina, in terms of laboratory animals and disrupted research? Dr. Whelton: It's hard to quantify the situation, but clearly our research community has faced major disruption at best and severe loss of research assets and capacity at worst. The impact varies greatly by research discipline. There has been little impact on international research, but major losses for domestic epidemiology biological data banks, and scattering of participants in population and clinical research studies. We managed to save many of our key research assets, including transgenic mice colonies and cell lines. Medscape: What are the potential health consequences if pathogens or laboratory animals were to escape or fall into the wrong hands? Dr. Whelton: This was never a practical issue for us, but it was a theoretic concern that Tulane and the NIH addressed at the earliest stage. We both concluded that it was not an issue. We had veterinarians and vet staff in place prior to the evacuation, and we got a veterinarian team back into our buildings as a part of the first re-entry mission. Medscape: What were the estimated losses involving federally funded projects at Tulane and at other New Orleans colleges and universities? Dr. Whelton: It's too early to tell, but they will be substantial, at least at Tulane. I cannot speak for the others. Medscape: How will losses from Katrina affect the Bogalusa Heart Study? Dr. Whelton: Specimens in the Bogalusa Heart Study, and other epidemiologic specimens that were stored in -70 degree freezers, were exposed to room temperature after power was lost and are likely only useful as a source of DNA and for genetic studies. However, the participants in these studies have been profiled extensively, and much valuable information is available in computer databases. I have not had an opportunity to speak with Dr. [Gerald] Berenson regarding whether and to what extent he may have back-up specimens elsewhere in the country. Medscape: Is there anything you would like to add in closing? Dr. Whelton: I'd like to believe the university has taken a proactive stance to minimize the impact of Katrina on our research community. Fortunately, our most valuable asset - investigators and their staff and students - is intact. Likewise, we were able to feed and water our animals as long as we had staff in our facilities immediately post-Katrina, and to get back to them with the shortest delay possible. We were also able to preserve most, possibly all, of our patient- and research-related cell lines and materials and equipment under liquid nitrogen. Our epidemiology and clinical research community may have suffered the most due to loss of power to their -70 degree freezers and scattering of their populations. Many researchers are facing severe disruption of their projects. We are trying to assist them on an individual basis. Needless to say, we are working hard to see if and when we can get them back to their own space. We face a severe challenge and will need substantial help to get back on track, but we are receiving wonderful support and encouragement from our colleagues in the academic community and in federal research agencies, including the NIH and National Science Foundation. Reviewed by Gary D. Vogin, MD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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