September 3, 2008--The Weather Channel is reporting about the big difference for pets during Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Katrina. With Gustav, pet evacuations were a top priority for 

September 2, 2008--Hurricane Katrina was a terrible disaster for pets in New Orleans. But not this time with Gustav. The Louisiana SPCA, Pasado's Safe Haven, IFAW, Best Friends Animal Society, the Humane Society of the US and many other animal rescue groups coordinated with seamless cooperation and were able to affect a real difference for pets. The groups transported pets from shelters in the path of the storm to safer locations, housed pets whose owners couldn't take the pets with them for whatever reason, picked up abandoned animals, coordinated lost and found efforts with pets and often didn't leave the areas until the last minute because they were taking care of pets.

Shelter Update from Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue:

From an LA shelter, thank you so much for the words of encouragement and offering of help. It means a lot to see everyone on their toes AHEAD of time offering help instead of waiting, both here locally and nationally.

We are in Baton Rouge and had very little damage during Katrina, even though there was flooding and wind damage all around us. We are staying to help others and evacuees staying with family here, as all the evacuation cities are south of us. We have most of our volunteers and even someformer adopters scheduled to come out on Sunday to clean all cages and carriers, label every carrier, cage, and rabbit (our rabbits are tattooed with "MHR" in the ear while under anesthesia for their spay or neuter), and write their names and our phone number in their ears with sharpies, just in case. We have all vet records printed and our few with health problems have backup meds stowed away, and thankfully our vet is close and is on call during all of this, and caring for quite a few evacuee pets at her facility. She has a generator and air condition in every room and has extended the invitation for us to board there if needed. Of course all of our gang will be kept inside for the storm, and the only damage we may see is trees/limbs falling on the roof. We have enough feed and hay to last 2 weeks, so we should be OK. Now the only question is, will our outdoor lean-to's and hutches survive?
Thanks again for letting shelters be aware of the assistance available AHEAD of time, so that it's not relying on word of mouth after the fact. As a rescuer and pet-slave, I greatly appreciate it.

Wendy
www.magichappensrescue.com
Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue

Sept.1, 2008--The Kansas City Star reports that pets in Hurricane Gustav's path have been getting better treatment this time around:

Three years after pet owners were reduced to tears while being forced to leave their dogs and cats in neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, emergency response officials are taking extraordinary care to ensure animal safety during Hurricane Gustav.

At the bus station, a designated pick-up point for evacuees, a pet registration center was set up under green tents. Dozens of white pet-traveling crates were stacked against the curb.

"We're making sure the pets go where their owners go," said Sandy Cochran, South Carolina state coordinator with United Animal Nations, who came to New Orleans to help with the effort. "During Katrina, there was really no plan for what to do with pets.

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Before pet owners boarded a bus, they filed out paperwork about their animal and were given a paper bracelet with a code number on it, she said. That code number was then written on the traveling crate along with the names of the pet and owner.

The pets were loaded onto 18-wheel trucks, which follow their buses to their destination. Every two hours, the truck driver stops to check on the animals, which are fed, watered and kept cool.

A veterinarian was on stand-by at the registration tent to treat sick or injured animals, Cochran said. State officials said they requested about 150 trucks to help transport pets out of the city.

Thankfully, it seems the painful lessons learned during Katrina about how to care for pets in disaster situations are paying off in Hurricane Gustav. We are also very thankful for the disaster preparedness steps taken by the Best Friends Animal Society:

As with Hurricane Katrina, our Rapid Response team was first on the ground last week, helping local agencies prepare for Gustav. Over the past few days, we've helped move hundreds of shelter animals out of the area, to neighboring states.

And today, when we heard people with pets were being turned away from evacuation buses (because they didn't have pet carriers!), our team responded with three thousand pet carriers to be sure those folks could evacuate with their pets.

When we confirmed with officials that still some pet owners left pets behind, in back yards and tied to porches, our staff stayed on to help animal officials get those pets to shelter, too.