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ALERT: During Hurricane Katrina, thousands of pets were left stranded in
the Gulf region because our responding agencies didn't have a plan. Many people stayed behind - putting themselves in danger
because they wouldn't leave their best friends. The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act - S.2548 by Sens.
Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and H.R. 3858 by Reps. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Chris Shays (R-CT) - would change
that. Pets are part of the family, and no pet should be left behind. Call the congressional switchboard
at 202-224-3121 and ask your federal lawmakers to support the PETS act. Or click here to take action today.
Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort
1st Trip: Mississippi
| On the way to Mississippi. |
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| David Braun, Hilleary Bogley, Katie Beam, Julio Solares, Berk Lee & Jim Furr |
The wonderful support from the community enabled us to provide assistance for hundreds of animals affected by the storm. It
is an honor to have the opportunity to share our Katrina Relief Effort
experience with you.
The week after the storm, we made many phone calls trying to find out how we could
help. We hit a lot of resistance but decided to gather supplies and head south. We heard about a HSUS (Humane Society of the
United States) temporary shelter and distribution center in Hattiesburg, MS and felt this was a good starting point. Three
trucks and trailers were loaded with donated medical supplies, cat, dog, people and horse food and headed south.
On day 2 we arrived at the Forrest County multi-purpose center in
Hattiesburg where we unloaded one of the trucks. From there we followed a lovely woman who directed us to the town of Gulfport. We unloaded donations at the HSSM, visited
their devastated shelter, helped look into getting the electricity back in and got some good information about surrounding
communities that needed supplies and help.
The following morning we headed for Kiln, MS. We dropped off supplies
at a local fire department and found a Yellow Lab who had a badly injured foot. We provided care for the Lab, who we
now call Cane and he traveled with us for the next several days.
Later
that day, we went to the small town of Waveland and we were completely overwhelmed by the amount of devastation.
The whole town was destroyed. We helped a Humane Investigator from Mobile, Alabama search for animals and found the Waveland
Animal Shelter building that had been condemned. Most of the animals in the shelter drowned during the 40 foot wave surge.
The next morning we stopped at the Kmart refugee camp to get ice.
One of the volunteers, Julio, saw a small cardboard sign that read:"animal help". We followed a small dirt road and found
a wonderful group of private citizens that had started a makeshift shelter in a half standing pavillion. They were very happy
to have our help and desperately needed our supplies.
All in all, we spent 5 days in Waveland and helped many animals
and people. We returned to Virginia with 37 animals. When we arrived back home, we were completely guilt-ridden. It was very
hard to leave Mississippi when there was still so much to do. We decided to make a second trip; this time, to
New Orleans.
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Middleburg Humane Foundation
is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are
100% tax deductible. MHF continues to be entirely funded by private
donations with no state or county funding. Please
donate via paypal or make your check payable to: MHF and mail to MHF, PO Box 1238, Middleburg, VA 20118. Click here for other ways you can help.
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© 2005 - 2008
Middleburg Humane Foundation
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