[ SHOWGSD-L ] Help despirately needed at LSU
- From: Cedarsgsd@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:41:36 EDT
** High Priority **
I just got off the phone with David Senior at LSU. He is running the Parker
Coliseum shelter at LSU. This shelter is housing all of the dogs that have
been turned in by owners evacuating to shelters, vet hospitals that were
evacuated, ... Basically all of the dogs are owned animals that have/had
owners.
They are down from 1200 animals to about 800. Because these are considered
"owned" animals they are not able to move these dogs out into rescue or
shelters
until the end of the month. He just told me that they are in desperate need
of help caring for these animals. He mainly needs techs or people who are
willing to help with the animals. He said that not all of the people need to
be
skilled techs - just be willing to help with the care of the animals. He is
looking for a 5 day commitment at LSU (which means 7 day total if you include
travel) There is a place for people to stay at the school. He is looking for
people starting now and for the next 2 ½ weeks. A lot of the people who have
committed to working are being diverted to the Lamar Dixon shelter and
possibly by the need of more shelters because of this new hurricane, before
they
even get to the Parker Coliseum.
Other problems include the need for shelters or rescue organizations who are
willing to take these animals at the end of the month. Because these animals
are not strays or rescued animals they need to be housed for a period of
time giving the owners a chance to reclaim their pets. Every effort is being
made to contact the owners - but in most cases the address and phone numbers
given for these animals no longer exists. Unfortunately, they are only
expecting
only about 25% of the animals to be returned to their owners. Starting Oct 1
they will need to move these animals out - the big concern is that most of
the shelters are going to be saturated with all of the other animals that have
already been moved out from other shelters in the area.
I am sending this out - in case anyone is possibly interested in I helping
out in LA. This is a place where special training is not required. However you
would need to be ready for a lot of hard and hot work. And if any one has
any ideas of shelters/ rescue organization that are not already overloaded
with
dogs and would be willing to take some of these dogs, please let me know.
Any ideas or contacts would be greatly appreciated. I am including a letter
from David that might help explain the situation at LSU as of last week. They
are really desperate and understaffed right now.
I am home right now after surgery - but call me or email me if you have any
questions/suggestions. 495-8083. The person at LSU who is in charge of
volunteer scheduling at Claire Miceli, cmiceli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Debby
Debby Sundstrom
College of Veterinary Medicine
2015 SW 16th Ave
Gainesville, FL 32610-0126
email: sundstromd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 352-392-4700 ext 5719
Home: 352-495-8083
Cell: 352-538-9936
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Subject: Dr. David Senior Update
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From: "Gail Overstreet" <goverstreet@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Staff" <Staff@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Linda Lee-Ambrose" <Lee-AmbroseL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Debby Sundstrom" <sundstromd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
We wanted to share this with you.
Gail
-----Original Message-----
From: Colin Burrows [mailto:BurrowsC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 1:56 PM
To: Dottie Holland; Celia Yemma; Gail Overstreet
Subject: Fwd: Lima
>>> "David Senior" <dfsenior37@xxxxxxx> 9/19/2005 12:22:59 AM >>>
NAVC Board members,
As you know we are undertaking a frustrating and extensive effort to
handle the thousands of animals either displaced or abandoned in New
Orleans and I have spent my time on little else the last three weeks.
Despite our best efforts it is seemingly impossible to garner support
for an outside entity taking over the unit to relieve those folks who
have been in the game from the start. For many it is emotionally
draining. At this point I am a little hopeful that there might be help
on the way from IFAW (good people) to assist in this. If help is not
forthcoming I may have to cancel the trip to Lima because of my
entrenched obligation to the LSU shelter.
I am sorry for the late notice on this possibility. Our world has been
turned upside down. There are many heroes and angels but most of the
established emergency management agencies and animal rescue groups have
been of limited value to us. This is not because of blindness to the
issues. We are not at ground zero and with Baton Rouge infrastructure
intact (albeit stretched because of a suddenly doubled population) we
probaably deserve a passing grade for the work we are doing and in this
environment a passing grade means you need no help. In addition, the
agencies are overwhelmed. From a macro perspective, every time a need
is identified, the size of the job is 10 times beyond reasonable and
readily available resources. We continue to hear horror stories and I
will not relate them because the rumors fly wildly. One never knows
what to believe.
We are relatively protected in Baton Rouge. Civil behavior has been the
norm as one would expect in a setting where we always had food and
water. The thin veneer of civilized behavior is soon stripped away once
people believe they have to compete for water to survive for the next 12
hours. Many of the weakest didn't.
Our situation is fluid in that a need or decision one day becomes
redundant the next. Use of the internet in this respect is very
dangerous. For example without my permission, my name was put out there
as the go-to person for vets who wanted to volunteer to assist. This
ended up on a web site resulting in hundreds of e-mails daily; more or
less destroying my e-mail as a valid form of communication. In
addition, if we were to put on the SVM website in the finest print
possible that we needed a boat, in 7 days I could have my own boat show.
This phenomenon has resulted in materials and supplies from all over the
country arriving and it has taken a lot of much needed manpower to
handle the excess of largely unneeded supplies. Bottled water is also
an issue. Baton Rouge has arguably among the finest tap water in the
country drawn from deep water wells fed by self-sustaining aquifers
formed from rain that fell about 1,000 years ago. It is like coals to
Newcastle. However, the water is needed in New Orleans. Dropped off in
Baton Rouge creates a logistical hitch. I could go on and on.
Right now I cannot see the villain other than the hurricane itself.
Right from the start and at every point the magnitude of the problem has
been underestimated. I recall going to bed in Gainesville where we had
evacuated with the TV report that New Orleans had dodged a bullet and
that by the way the 17th street canal levy had been breached (seemingly
mentioned as an aside or footnote). It nagged me as I fell asleep as to
why this was not a big deal and more made of this fact. The next day
the real truth came out and every agency has been struggling to get its
arms around the situation ever since.
Early on and to some extent still, communication remains a major issue.
Cell phones systems were and remain overwhelmed. Even land lines are a
problem. Text messaging works but few in the U.S. use it. When we
first set up the shelter we were open 24/7 and starting with two card
tables and one bank of cages in the first 48 hours we took in 500
animals from their evacuated owners. Because phones were an issue, we
were reduced to word of mouth and smoke signals.
The state emergency response for animal rescue has been tough. Based in
the Dept of Agriculture and Forrestry, the setup was not and to a great
extent remains ill-equipped to handle the massive size of this disaster
from both a communcations infrastructure standpoint and from a manpower
standpoint. This has resulted in delayed and most times non-existent
responses to our requests leaving the units on the ground to look after
themselves. Even if the central response was brisk and complete, this
has been such a rapidly evolving situation, it would be hard to live
with the delays.
I confess, my stint as president of NAVC along with the usual annual
contingency management at the conference has prepared me to play a
unique role in assisting with this effort. However, it seems like the
conference has gone on for three weeks and has another 4 weeks to run!!
Just when I felt totally drained, today I visited the Red Cross shelter
to drop off information regarding our exit strategy. Seeing that is
sobering and totally heart rending. What a shocking dislocation this is
for so many. I just wish I had my better half Debby there to assist. In
fact I did enlist Debby, laid up at home after hip surgery, to develop a
comprehensive list of U.S. animal shelters we might approach to take our
animals once the State Veterinarian gives us the OK to move them out of
LA. She did her usual fantastic job in no time flat. Again, NAVC
training is implicit in the design of the communications leading up to
our exit strategy.
If you are a member of VIN and saw the former Soviet vet's comments
about our effort, I have a story to tell you in private. Bottom line:
everyone reacts differently to seeing our challenge and this person's
response to the issues was to compare the situation to her
well-established and probably extremely well-run practice in Long Beach.
To be sure with up to 1,280 tenents, 18 days old, and supported for the
most part by short time volunteers, we are far from a bright sunny day
in Southern California. We are in a disaster and this is how disasters
look. Many of our volunteer vets from all parts of the U.S. and Canada
have expressed pleasant surprise at our organization and animal care.
These people have been wonderful: they work long hours, they come up
with great ideas for improvement, they pull together. In my opinion,
what I have seen represents one of our profession's finest hours. We
should all be very proud to be veterinarians.
Sorry to be so long in getting information to you. It has been
overwhelming.
David
David F. Senior
NAVC Conference Coordinator
10528 Magnolialake Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
Phone: Day: 225 578 9551
Phone: Night and Weekends: 225 769 9610
Fax: 225 766 5384
e-mail: dfsenior37@xxxxxxx
Website: http://www.tnavc.org
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