Pets abandoned during storm evacuations put a strain on shelters

[brumzoo]

Sad.  Someone abandoned a 10 month old bully at a shelter b/c they didn't want to be bothered.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-animalssep19,0,1441155.story?coll=sfla-home-headlinesPets

Pets abandoned during storm evacuations put a strain on shelters

By Sally Kestin
Staff Writer
Posted September 19 2004

Florida's animal shelters are overflowing with hundreds of dogs and cats left homeless by the hurricanes or abandoned by their owners, forcing workers to euthanize some and send others out of state in search of a home.

Shelters were inundated even before the storms hit as worried owners dropped their pets off for good, as many as 60 an hour at Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control.
 
"We literally didn't have any room," said Director Dianne Sauve. "We were begging people not to turn their animals in because their animals were going to be put to sleep, and people were still turning them in. The people were crying, our staff was crying."

The influx comes at a time when shelters are least able to handle it. Hurricane Charley wiped out or incapacitated animal care facilities in Central and West Florida, and Frances left some Treasure Coast shelters damaged and without power.

Last week, in anticipation of Ivan, workers emptied Panhandle shelters and prepared for an onslaught of injured and homeless animals.

Initial reports Friday indicated several shelters "weathered through the storm OK," said Laura Bevan, director of the southeast regional office of the Humane Society of the United States. "None of their animals suffered, but they don't have electric or water. ... We still have some shelters we haven't talked to."

It will be months before the final toll on Florida pets is known, but animal workers fear it may be the worst on record, surpassing the 40,000 or more lost or abandoned after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

"When Andrew happened, you had an outpouring of help from everywhere else in the state," said Sauve, who is on the board of the Florida Animal Control Association. "We have so many areas that are impacted right now by hurricanes, all of these animals that are displaced, there's simply not going to be enough homes for them."

In the past two weeks, animal welfare workers have flown adoptable dogs and cats out of Florida to shelters in Atlanta, Houston, Denver and New York. Shelters within Florida, most of them independently operated, are helping each other -- a welcome byproduct of Andrew, when no network existed.

Shelter cages and runs in the paths of the storms began filling up as Charley and Frances approached and emergency officials issued evacuation orders for millions of Floridians.

"In the Panhandle, somebody walked in with a purebred 10-month-old bulldog," Bevan said. "They didn't want to be bothered. In all three hurricanes, people have said, `We're leaving and we don't have any place for it,' and just dumped it."

During Frances, the Humane Society of the Palm Beaches "took over 250 owned animals in a six-hour period," said marketing coordinator Arin Roos. "That's on top of the 550 we already had."

Some owners never come back to claim their pets. The Suncoast Humane Society in Englewood took in more than 600 animals from Charley, said Debra Parsons-Drake, executive director.

Only about half of the dogs have been claimed, and the 240 cats surrendered by their owners have fared even worse.

"We've reunited less than 10," Parsons-Drake said. "It's very depressing."

Among the four-legged storm victims at the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County are nine pets belonging to residents of the Isles of Vero assisted living facility destroyed by Frances. One owner, a 90-year-old woman now staying in Gainesville, called shelter staff this week and reluctantly suggested they euthanize her 12-year-old cat, Mary Jane, said Joan Carlson, the shelter's executive director.

"She said, `I have no family. I'll probably never come back to Vero Beach,'" Carlson said.

Other owners continued to drop off their pets at the shelter, about 20 in two days last week. "They can't live in their homes and they have no place for their animals," Carlson said.

At the Humane Society of St. Lucie County in Fort Pierce, storm animals are "still coming in, probably at the rate of 8 to 10 a day," said David Robertson, volunteer and education coordinator.

Sauve estimates shelter admissions at Palm Beach County's animal control are up 20 percent over the usual 2,300 animals a month, a trend she expects to continue through October.

Many shelters in the state have extended their deadlines to hold strays and lost animals to give owners a chance to reclaim pets. They've turned to euthanization primarily for aggressive animals and those too sick or injured to be adopted.

Left with no choice, Palm Beach County animal control reluctantly killed dozens of animals before Frances, when the shelter exceeded its capacity of 500 and owners kept surrendering their pets.

"We had animals in carriers. We had animals everywhere," Sauve said. "We did our best to keep as many alive as we could."

It may be next year before animal welfare workers know how many dogs and cats were abandoned or had to be killed because of the storms, or how much the massive animal rescue effort cost.

Palm Beach County animal control spent $35,000 helping west coast shelters after Charley. "For Frances, it's going to be hundreds of thousands," Sauve said.