Any (pet) shelter in a storm

As soon as temporary shelters at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center and LSU Parker Coliseum opened after Hurricane Katrina, Baton Rouge volunteers arrived en masse to scoop poop, distribute supplies, feed, water, walk and care for thousands of other people’s animals. At times, the facilities were so overwhelmed by animal advocates, the temporary shelters actually turned volunteers away.

Aid and reinforcements certainly came from around the country. But when those people left and the shelters closed in December 2005, Baton Rougeans took home a tremendous number of unclaimed animals — exotic birds, turtles and horses included — for months until the animals were re-homed or collected by the owners.

However, Baton Rouge may never again become the nation’s largest animal shelter. In response to the 2005 hurricane season, the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association created the Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART), a volunteer corps which partners with the state’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry to plan and provide for animals’ welfare during emergencies.

State agencies now divide the population fleeing a disaster into two groups: 1) people who can evacuate by themselves, and 2) residents who have critical transportation needs (CTN) and require assistance to evacuate, a group estimated to be 10% of any population. Each parish is responsible for coordinating a plan for its CTN citizens. Some parishes have formal agreements with other parishes or state-run facilities.

A few days before a hurricane’s projected landfall, the Department of Social Services and LSART representatives and volunteers arrive to begin assessing and evacuating the vulnerable population and its pets. At the point of departure, a computerized system creates multiple ID bracelets for each member of the household — including pets. As families climb into buses, their animals are loaded into refrigerated 18-wheelers. Drills by local agencies have yielded both a contingency plan in the case of computer failure or a volume overload and groundbreaking research regarding the safety of transporting pet under such conditions.

“Our big push is to co-locate close enough for people to care for their own pets,” says Becky Adcock, DVM, deputy director of LSART. Once the families arrive at the shelter, they find and care for their pets in an adjacent building.

By early September, LSU AgCenter is scheduled to complete construction of a new facility south of Alexandria. Central Region Director John W. Barnett, PhD, explains the building is designed to house 3,500 CTN residents for three days. The adjacent 60,000-square-foot, open-air livestock barn is capable of holding 500 horses, cows or other large animals or several thousand pets. Shelters for the self-evacuated population may open in Monroe and Shreveport. No shelters are planned south of I-10. However, depending on demand, a small shelter may be available in Baton Rouge post-landfall.

However, Adcock cautions pet owners, “Don’t rely on the state system. Resources are limited. They are for the most needy. (The state shelters) will be crowded and dusty. There are so many better places to shelter pets. If you think you can drop an animal at a state shelter, that is absolutely not true. You will be expected to stay with your pet.”

As far as pets rescued from a disaster area, LSART will rely on the trained trustees of the prison system — particularly the barn and new shelter at Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson for assistance. Besides providing a 24-hour, trained, supervised, consistent crew, Adcock says working with the nonviolent offers has other advantages: “The hardest thing at Lamar and LSU was that people took pets that weren’t theirs, when we knew who the owner was. With it being in a prison, that’s not a problem.” Furthermore, she says, “We’re hoping the number of animals that have to be retrieved are a tremendous number less than it was before.”

That’s because both common sense and veterinary science now dictate a new approach for the ideal location for animals during a disaster. “Even when I was in vet school, we were told to leave pets at home for three days. It was the safest place,” Adcock recalls. “But, you never know for sure. If Katrina had been a typical hurricane, people would have been home in three days. The safest place for pets is with their owners.”

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