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Molly Noonan, a student at Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine, holds a dog as a veterinarian checks its condition.
Jaye Wright, from Missouri, washes a dog brought to a shelter set up at the Lamar Dixon Exhibition Center in Gonzales, La., for animals stranded during Hurricane Katrina. The dog had been in the contaminated floodwaters of New Orleans.
BOTTOM:
RIGHT: Horses are among the animals separated from their owners and homes at the shelter for rescued animals.
Roni Cohen, from Maine, carries a dog from the triage center to find a cage at the shelter for rescued animals in Gonzales, La. Cohen, like many of the volunteers at the shelter, drove in on her own because she felt the need to help. |
GONZALES, La.--In this small community beside Interstate 10 south of Baton Rouge sits the Lamar Dixon Exhibition Center, with its rows of cavernous buildings set up much like the Virginia State Fair.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's humming with activity, but not from the usual families with smiling children enjoying a day of fun and food.
The center has become one of the largest repositories of hurt and starving stray animals rescued from neighborhoods in and around the devastated city of New Orleans.
Every day, from before dawn until well after dark, thousands of pet owners who have been separated from their normal lives and their beloved animals walk the corridors. They cling to hope of finding dogs, cats, horses, parrots, snakes and even rodents left behind as they fled the flooded city.
Adele Potts, accompanied by friend Beanie Klumpp, walked for hours Thursday, checking for any sign of her 5-year-old boxer, Porsche. Eyes red from crying, she stopped for a moment beside the busy check-in table where animals of all types were coming in the gate.
Attendants took a Polaroid picture of each animal, then sent it on to the next stop, where veterinarians and student volunteers were examining them. After that, they were taken to a massive holding area nearby.
"I'm just afraid someone will come here and take my dog," Potts said.
This has been a life-changing couple of weeks for the New Orleans resident.
Pausing for a moment, she added: "My house and my car are flooded. And now, I've lost my dog."
Potts had taken Porsche to a shelter a few days before the storm because she was going on an out-of-town trip. She returned to find that the shelter had not been flooded, but something just as devastating had happened.
"Someone had opened all the doors and all the animals were gone."
As soon as the scope of Katrina's damage became evident, volunteers with animal rescue groups from all over the country--including Virginia--and the U.S. Humane Society, converged on the Gulf Coast to help rescue people's pets. All around the stricken areas, animals wandered, eating whatever they could find and drinking the putrid water that still floods parts of the city.
The Dixon Center is possibly the largest and most unusual animal shelter of its kind, judging from the sheer numbers of animals here--more than 2,000 and growing every day as new ones arrive.
Four of six giant steel buildings with temporary kennels house dogs; another is for cats, rodents and exotics, and one is reserved for horses, many of them with injuries or trauma.
The center will hold the pets for 30 days. Officials said they don't intend to euthanize the animals after that time, but will send them to other shelters for adoption.
Human evacuees are housed in a tent city around the front.
Fede Moralez and Molly Noonan, students at Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, were at the triage center, doing quick examinations in a sort of doggie assembly line.
In line were a large brown Lab, followed by a pit bull so thin that its ribs were protruding. Its right front paw was red and swollen.
"Mostly they come in emaciated, dehydrated or ill," Noonan said. She had no idea how many animals had passed through her station during the day. Along with the dogs and cats, she said, "I've seen some birds, small pets--even a snake--a boa."
There are about 40 vets here, and many others to help, but the staff is overwhelmed.
"If you write a story, tell people we need volunteers," Noonan said.
At a large receiving area behind a gate--erected Thursday because people were stealing animals during the night--dozens of volunteers checked in forlorn pet owners. They write people's names on yellow legal pads, but the shelter also has a Web site so owners can more easily find their Bingos, Butternuts and Snowballs.
Volunteers help walk the dogs and occasionally exercise the horses. Care and feeding instructions are posted on the kennel doors and stalls.
Linda Klumpf, an animal-care worker at Little Shelter in Long Island, sat in her truck, waiting to discharge her cargo after spending the day cruising Canal Road in New Orleans.
"We saw a lot of cats and some horses," she said. She and other crews have been leaving food and water for animals to be picked up later.
It appeared that most pet owners were leaving the shelter empty-handed.
A volunteer said the process was often the same: "It's sad. They keep walking back and forth, back and forth."
There were a few lucky ones.
One man with a cane hugged two terriers at his white Jeep parked outside.
He leaned down, hugging one of them.
"Oh, it's good to see you guys!"
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