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PETA Fights in Behalf of Hurricane Katrina’s Animal and Human Victims
In behalf of the animals affected by Hurricane Katrina, the testimony below was submitted to the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee for its hearings on the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The suffering of human victims of Hurricane Katrina was compounded by the federal blockades that prevented workers from rescuing animals and by evacuators’ insistence that animals be abandoned to die. PETA is working to ensure that the well-being of animals is included in any local, state, or federal disaster response plan. Please urge your senators and your representative in Congress to ensure that animals are included in future disaster response plans.
PETA’s Reform Committee Testimony
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
My name is Daphna Nachminovitch. I am the director of rescue operations for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today through this written testimony on behalf of our more than 850,000 members and supporters throughout the United States and around the world and the tens of millions of people across this country whose families include companion animals.
As you analyze the government’s response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing floods, I ask you to keep one question in mind: Did our government know the people who desperately needed help in the wake of this disaster?
I ask this question because FEMA, Louisiana state officials, the Red Cross, and other agencies handed down orders that forced tens of thousands of people, some under threat of arrest, to abandon their animals. Who were these people? One was Gary Lee Mullins, 55, of New Orleans. He climbed a tree as floodwaters rose and for five days held his 16-year-old dog in his arms. When his rescuers finally arrived, they told him he would have to leave his dog. “I could not leave her alive in the tree. She was too old to survive,” Mr. Mullins said, after he was reduced to killing his beloved companion rather than leave her to die alone and afraid.
Another was Valerie Bennett, 34, of Slidell, Louisiana, who told the Associated Press that she was so desperate that she offered her evacuators both her own and her mother’s wedding rings in an attempt to bribe them into letting her bring her dog. They refused.
Others were nameless faces who wept before television news cameras as they left animals on rooftops or in the streets surrounded by floodwaters. One was a sobbing little boy whose dog, Snowball, was forcibly pulled from his arms. Another was a blind woman who was told that she had to leave her seeing-eye dog behind. She would not.
These people were twice victimized: first by hurricanes and floods and then by government and nonprofit agency officials who forced them to abandon cherished family members. Some people risked—or lost—their lives when they refused to leave their homes before and after the hurricane because they could not leave their animals to face the storm and the floods alone. Some who had the opportunity to get into boats and helicopters or to seek comfort in shelters without their animals refused and chose instead to try to survive in the streets, struggling for food and water, because the boats and helicopters and shelters would not admit animals.
Who are these people, these victims of Hurricane Katrina and of all future disasters? They are people who consider their animals to be true members of their families, and decent people don’t willingly turn their backs on their families in a crisis. They would no sooner leave their dog or cat than they would desert a defenseless child or an elderly parent. And, as animal companions now live in 63 percent of all American households—nearly 70 million homes—these people are the majority.
The government chose to ignore this when it forced these people to abandon their animals. This was not only illegal, according to Chapter 14, Section 102.1, of Louisiana’s Revised Statutes, which prohibits animal abandonment, it was also immensely cruel to the thousands of storm survivors already crushed by their losses, as they will now be left to face the additional guilt and anguish of not knowing what became of animals they loved and cherished.
Many animal protection organizations understand the deep bond between humans and animal companions and sent rescue teams that could have lifted some of the burden from FEMA and state officials. Yet, for reasons that have not been fully explained, they were not allowed to enter flooded areas. A full six days after Hurricane Katrina struck, experienced, well-equipped animal rescue crews were still being denied entrance to New Orleans to help animals. Many regions of Mississippi were off-limits to animal rescuers more than a week after the hurricane. Rescuers reported that residents were desperate for food and veterinary care for cats, dogs, and other animals. Horses injured by flying debris and countless stray animals were found scavenging in the devastation of southern Mississippi. By September 6, London’s Daily Telegraph was reporting that “thousands of animals” had been left “stranded and starving to death” in the city. Images of dogs stranded on rooftops were broadcast nightly on television news programs.
Can you explain to evacuated hurricane victims, already shattered by the trauma of leaving their animals behind, why rescuers were kept from saving their animals for nearly a week? The delay made a terrible situation even worse. This is what Laura Brown, PETA’s Rescue Team captain, still working in New Orleans, said on September 12: “In the last 48 hours, I have used a crowbar to pry open a boarded-up home and pull out a starving, terrified dog who somehow survived for two weeks on old garbage. While fighting nausea from the stench of contaminated floodwaters, I spotted a terrified Chow Chow, his left eye missing, hiding in sewage collected under his crushed home, and coaxed him to safety. While military helicopters roared overhead, I gathered a starving dog in my arms and gave her her first drink of fresh water in more than a week. I waded through waist-deep noxious water to reach an emaciated pit bull stranded on a feces-covered porch. I fed 50 lovebirds and finches I found standing on the rotting remains of their cagemates. And I have searched for telephone bills in these homes, hoping to find a number that will lead to the people who are surely frantic about their animals.”
These rescues continue even as this committee considers how to devise an effective response to disasters. As you hear the testimony and formulate plans, I ask you to remember who these victims are: They are the animals, yes, and they are also the people who love all members of their families and who will risk their lives to save their animals. They should never again be bullied into abandoning their animals just because FEMA and other agencies were not adequately prepared. Animals must be included in all future disaster response plans. It is too late for many of the families and their animals whose lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but we now have an obligation to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Please do not waste this opportunity. Thank you.
Daphna Nachminovitch is PETA’s director of domestic animal and wildlife rescue and information, supervising all of PETA’s animal rescue operations, including those in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and she led PETA’s efforts in New York City to help stranded animals and their guardians following the 9-11 attacks. She also oversees PETA’s responses to thousands of cases of neglect and violent crimes against animals occurring across the United States annually, as well as PETA’s wildlife division and mobile spay/neuter clinic.
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PETA's House Government Reform Committee Testimony
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See Pictures of PETA's Rescue Work
