October 19, 2009

A stranded dog near Laguna Lake in the Philippines -- still flooded following Typhoon Ketsana -- awaits food and water from rescuers. (ZT Photo Courtesy of IFAW)

Thousands of Pets Still Stranded after Typhoon: The Philippines are still reeling from the Typhoon Ketsana as the region braces for yet another storm. One animal rescue worker has described the extent of the suffering as being "50 times bigger" than Katrina.

NASHUA, N.H. -- More than three weeks after the first Sept. 26 typhoon battered the Philippines, thousands of people and animals remain stranded in flooded villages outside Manila, according to rescue workers at the disaster scene.

In the Laguna Bay area, about a 90-minute trip south of Manila, pets and livestock survived by climbing on rooftops, said Dick Green, International Fund for Animal Welfare’s disaster relief manager. Green saw animals living on their own, but in many cases, their owners lived with them or stayed nearby. Some animals had gone without food for a week, he said.

“There are entire villages in chest-deep water,” Green said; and according to some predictions, the waters may not recede for at least a month.

The crisis in the Philippines continues to deepen for animals as well as people in the wake of two typhoons, rain storms, floods and a mud slide. According to government estimates, the disaster has affected almost four million people and destroyed the rice crop. The human death toll has topped 600, and an unknown number of animals have drowned or starved.

As new fears developed last week about the spread of disease, including mosquito-borne malaria, humanitarian relief efforts focused on the Laguna Lake region. Animal rescue teams went to Laguna Lake, as well, where the effort to save exhausted and starving cats and dogs was complicated by the urgent human crisis and the fact these animals, except in rare instances, cannot be evacuated due to lack of shelters, Green said.

If this disaster had happened in the U.S., Green said, hundreds of these animals would have been moved to safety by now. Without that option, animal rescue teams have still reached thousands of animals, fed them and given medical treatment, but no more than 50 dogs, cats and ducks have actually been rescued.

The plan is to leave the others in place with enough food to keep them -- and their people – for three or four days at a time. Last weekend, they returned to five inundated Laguna Lake villages and delivered more food and medical care.

Richard Crook, Best Friends manager for Rapid Response, estimated after 10 days, the rescue operation in Laguna Bay gave 2,000 animals and food,water and medical care.

"We have rescued many that otherwise wouldn't have made it this far," he said.

“People need to realize the techniques and tactics are different than a rescue in the U.S.,” Green said. “Two days ago, we took three dogs, two cats and two ducks; yesterday, two cats. In the U.S., that number would be in the hundreds.”

Pushing into remote flooded villages around Laguna Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 7 in search of Typhoon Ketsana’s victims -- both human and animal -- Green discovered a hidden place of suffering along elevated railroad tracks in Sukol.

“We actually got up a little railroad system,” he said, where some of the poorest are living in flimsy plywood or fiberglass shanties, leaning one after another, along the track. Almost every shanty had a dog. To reach home, the people climb in carts and push themselves backwards along the rails.

In one shanty, Green saw three children and a dog sharing an 8 by 10 space. An official told him the children had no parents.

“That was hard to see,” he said; and although the shanties seemed part of a lost world, they were not far enough removed to escape the flood.

“People are struggling to survive one day after another,” he said, and the same scene is being repeated all through the country.

Yet, this disaster defies easy comparisons with other catastrophes, he said.

“Everyone wants a comparison with Katrina,” the 2005 hurricane that submerged much of New Orleans, he said. “Think Katrina multiplied by a geographical area 50 times bigger.”

To deal with the logistics, the international rescue groups are relying on the Philippines Animal Welfare Society, according to Mike Booth, IFAW communications officer for emergency relief.

“They (PAWS) are the local group with ‘on the ground’ intelligence and a handle on the logistics required for rescue operations,” he said.

“IFAW comes in with water and land rescue professionals,” Booth said. “Our responders are trained in swift water rescue, high angle rope rescue,” he said. They work with local volunteers in the field. IFAW also provides financial support and some sheltering.

IFAW sent a specialized water rescue team to the Philippines on Sept. 30, according to Colleen Cullen, director of communications. World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Best Friends and Humane Society Internationale are also part of the rescue effort. The groups met late last week and developed an incident command structure. They were set to meet again Monday (Oct. 12) for a status review. They are working “healthy 12-hour days,” Green said, as they try to keep the stranded animals alive.

A typical operation starts with an advance team going into a village to assess the situation, Green said.

“We try to stay one village ahead,” and arrange a military escort, he said. If that’s impossible, a local official will always go along. Rescue workers do sometimes face anger over efforts to help pets when so many people remain in jeopardy, he said. That’s been one of the special challenges of this rescue, he said.

"We understand people have to come first,” he said. “We respect that."

Crook said most of the people in the Laguna Bay area had enough food to subsist. But animal rescue workers opted to provide humanitarian relief, as well as food for the animals.

"These dogs and cats live on human scraps,” Green said, so as a practical matter, the rescue plan has included helping people back on their feet.

Although some animals were found in good condition, many were severely dehydrated, Crook said.

It’s too soon to say how many animals have been lost or drowned in the disaster, Green said. The Department of Agriculture has a preliminary list of livestock killed, but accurate numbers are not yet available, Green said.

As of Friday, Oct. 9, lost animals were still being pulled into rescue boats, Green said.

Crying and yelping, an emaciated puppy was pulled out of chest-deep flood water into a boat Friday morning Philippine time.

“We’re giving him a vitamin shot, and he doesn’t like it,” Green said. “We’re going to give him a rabies shot, too.”

Meanwhile, as IFAW and other groups dealt with the Laguna Bay area, WSPA focused on care for about 3,600 dogs living alongside people in Manila evacuation centers, according to James Sawyer, head of Disaster Management.

"The floods are on a very large scale and at one point 80 percent of Manila was under water," he said. "People were displaced to over 260 camps around the city and took their pets with them. Sadly, these people didn't have the means to feed their animals nor did they have basic equipment like leashes for their animals."

WSPA also worked with local veterinarians to immunize dogs against rabies and bought supplies for the Marakina region city pound, which was hard hit in the disaster. All the animals in the pound were drowned, according to reports from WSPA's Dr. Damian Woodberry, the disaster response team leader.

WSPA devoted two weeks to the rescue effort, Sawyer said, but the team has now returned to its base in Bangkok.

According to Crook, the Laguna Bay rescue operation might move on to Luzon, because flooding in the northern provinces was reported to be worse than in the Laguna Bay villages.

Margo Ann Sullivan is Zootoo.com Pet News Correspondent based out of New Hampshire, covering animal welfare issues.

How to Help:

International Fund for Animal Welfare: 290 Summer Street, Yarmouth Port, MA 02675, info@ifaw.org

World Society for the Protection of Animals: 89 South Street, Suite 201, Boston, MA 02111

Humane Society International: 2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037

Best Friends: 5001 Anhgel Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah 84741 5001 Angel Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah 84741

Margo Ann Sullivan is the international animal welfare correspondent for Zootoo Pet News. She is based in New Hampshire.