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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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OCTOBER 2005
Reunions & adoptions
Reunions with lost pets occurred as far away as the Marin County Humane Society, north of San Francisco, where pediatrician Brenda Singh on September 16 found her nine-year-old Welsh springer spaniel Lady, two weeks after the dog bolted from a friend at a Baton Rouge evacuation center.
In all, San Francisco Bay area shelters fostered at least 14 planeloads of animals, mostly flown from Louisiana and Mississ-ippi by Operation Orphans of the Storm, coordinated by real estate developer Bill McLaughlin.
Other participants included Countryside Rescue, the Berkeley/East Bay Humane Society, the East Bay SPCA, the Peninsula Humane Society, Pets Lifeline, the SPCA of Monterey County, the Sacramento SPCA, the San Francisco SPCA, the San Jose Animal Care Center, the Humane Society of Sonoma County, and personnel from the San Francisco Department of Animal Care & Control.
The first major airlift of animals from New Orleans, however, was Operation Pet Lift, organized by PetRelocation.com and funded by Texas oil baron T. Boone Pickens at request of his wife Madeleine. About 80 dogs were flown from Baton Rouge to San Francisco on September 11, half for local placement, the rest for relay to foster homes found by the Helen Woodward Animal Center, near San Diego.
“Usually only a few people show up at the center when it opens, but more than 20 waited to see the ‘Katrina dogs,’” reported Debbi Farr Baker of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Fourteen of the 38 dogs at the center who were rescued from the ravaged Gulf Coast states were offered for adoption,” Farr Baker continued. “The shelter would not identify which dogs came from where. Spokesperson John Van Zante said that almost all of their dogs are from other shelters and all need homes.
“San Diego Humane Society spokesperson Zimran Zilaro said that having extra animals here does not displace animals who are already sheltered,” Farr Baker added. “Instead, people who otherwise might not have thought of taking home a shelter pet may now be spurred to do so.”
The San Diego Humane Society also offered animals displaced by the Katrina/Rita crisis for adoption. Thirteen San Diego Humane society personnel participated in the Louisiana rescue effort.