July 1, 2008

NEW YORK -- Thousands of farm animals and an unknown number of pets have been lost in the latest round of Midwest floods.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, more than 4,000 houses flooded since the levee broke June 12. Down the Mississippi River to Winfield, Mo., more than 1,000 pets are waiting in shelters because their owners have lost their homes and have no place to go.

Some face deadlines to reclaim their pets or surrender them for adoption. For humane societies, it’s a race against time to reunite them with families and save the ones still stranded.

As part of a team working to save livestock stranded on a levee by Oakville, Iowa, Jennifer Miller knows the clock is ticking. Miller is determined to move the animals off the levee before it breaks, but it’s a task that is easier said than done.

On Friday, a 4.7-mile boat trip to the levee took three hours, as the rescue team at times had to jump out and drag the boats -- top heavy with hay, pig feed and Gatorade -- through mud left by receding water.

Miller’s team was guided to their weigh station on the levee by a global positioning system unit, but they couldn’t steer the boat through the dead animal carcasses, felled trees and trash to reach the destination. They docked a mile away and walked.

“We found a family of four hogs, and one had a hip or back injury and was not able to keep up,” she said. “We decided to push the other three, knowing the fourth would fall behind and not make it.”

But the hogs kept looking back for the fourth one, and they continued calling to each other.

“I’ve never heard hogs crying in so many decibel levels. It was heartbreaking,” said Miller, who works with the International Fund for Animal Welfare based on Cape Cod, Mass.

Ultimately, that effort ended in frustration and exhaustion. After the team herded the animals to a feeding station, the pigs turned around and walked all the way back to the same area of the levee where the rescuers first found them. Miller also saw the injured pig.

It was resting in shade but apparently struggling. She treated it with alcohol to cool its skins and aloe to soothe any sunburn. She also tried to feed it, but the pig wasn’t interested in food or Gatorade.

The news was better Monday when the rescuers were able to move 15 pigs to safety off the "Big Ditch, the name of the levee around Oakville.

Other rescuers trying to save pets and farm animals described a mix of success and frustration. Some animals still are coming out alive, like the 22 cats that were carried out on a rescue boat.

“The ones that made it were on high ground,” said Amber Talbot. She also said these cats had a food supply while they were trapped. Their owners had dumped a bag of food before they evacuated.

Talbot, director of Washington, Iowa’s Paws and More Animal Shelter, believes animals died needlessly in Louisa County towns like Oakville, which does not have its own shelter.

Because Washington escaped the brunt of the disaster, Talbot was standing by ready to help people to the South. But she did not receive timely permission to go into Oakville, she said.

“There was no communication early on between the sheriff’s office and the citizens,” Talbot said. By the time she received clearance, the waters had risen and the rescue became complicated.

With street signs and familiar landmarks just below the water line, rescuers used boats and relayed telephone descriptions to find houses where people left pets. Talbot said pet owners were calling in, describing their house’s location and saying they left the cat on the second floor.

Of the 22 cats rescued, most were, but one cat did not pull through. It was severely emaciated and may also have been injured as a result of the flood.

About a dozen Oakville farm animals, after surviving the floods and a week without food or shelter, were shot to death by authorities before humane organizations could

step in.

“We definitely don’t want that to happen anymore,” said Colleen Cullen, communications officer for International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Cullen said people were sickened to hear the pigs were being shot after suffering so much in the flood. Farm Sanctuary, a rescue and advocacy organization based in Watkins Glen, N.Y., is taking custody of rescued pigs, which means the ones that can be saved will live out their lives at the sanctuary or another refuge.

Teams from International Fund for Animal Welfare, American Humane, Animal Rescue League of Boston, Farm Sanctuary, Best Friends, Code 3 Associates and Humane Society of Missouri have been working in the disaster areas along with local shelters.

No one knows how many animals were lost.

“It’s a large number,” said Misha Goodman, director of Friends of the Animal Center Foundation, an Iowa City shelter which was destroyed after being inundated by four feet of water.

The animals were evacuated safely, and the shelter relocated temporarily to the Johnson City Fairgrounds. But Goodman is also up against a deadline to find a new home for the shelter by July 15.

She will not force any pet owners to put their animals up for adoption, she said.

The focus is on the animals still living, said Dustin Vandehoef, of the Iowa State Dept. of Agriculture. He said nine or 10 farm animals were rescued on Friday.

Cullen said IFAW teams arrived in Adams County, Illinois, around June 20 and helped save 20 fawns that had been separated from their mothers due to the floods.

Many people want to reclaim their pets but still have nowhere to go. All the rental apartments which allow pets have been “snapped up,” according to Susan Manson, director of the Cedar Valley Humane Society, which is outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The city of Cedar Rapids is not allowing some water-damaged homes to be occupied again. Other people are waiting to learn if they can repair their houses and go home.

“The long-term issues are the concern right now,” she said, estimating 600 pets are still in an emergency shelter at Kirkwood Community College.

Most of them were delivered to shelters by owners who were being forced to evacuate. But it’s unclear how long the animals can stay at the shelter, she said.

“People were forced out of their homes with a few minutes notice,” she said.

The evacuations started with people living in the 100-year floodplain -- meaning areas with 1 percent chance of flooding every year.

Eventually, people in the 500-year flood plain and beyond were being evacuated. As Cedar Rapids flooded on June 11, the animals living in the city animal shelter were in danger.

“By the 11th, it was pretty evident, the animals were going to be in jeopardy,” Manson said.

With the city shelter under water, the animals were boated out as residents were ordered to evacuate. Cedar Valley Humane Society opened its doors at 4 a.m. to accept pets, Manson said.

“The emergency shelters didn’t allow folks to take their pets,” said Manson whose shelter was at 100 percent capacity within hours of opening. “We opened our doors and pulled out all the extra kennels.”

Manson said people brought 128 pets to the shelter that day.

“As time has gone on, we have transferred some pets to Kirkwood. We have only 35 dog kennels, and 80 dogs came in that day,” she said.

The Midwest floods, which continue to devastate communities along the Mississippi River from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Illinois, are being called the nation’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina.

To volunteer or donate to an Iowa shelter, visit Cedar Valley Humane Society,cvhumane.org; Friends of the Animal Center Foundation,facf.org; Paws and More Animal Shelter,pawsandmore.petfinder.com; Humane Society of Missouri,hsmo.org; International Fund for Animal Welfare,ifaw.org; American Humane,americanhumane.org; Code 3 Associates,code3associates.org; Best Friends,bestfriends.org; Farm Sanctuary,farmsanctuary.org

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