When your home burns to the foundations, it is a deep relief to get your loved ones. But what would happen if you couldn't get your pets (your hairy loved ones)? Scared animals (especially cats) can escape or hide during chaos of the frantic departure of a family. In other cases, there was no human being at home to rescue pets when the fire devastated. Dozens or hundreds (or perhaps more) of people displaced by fires still hope to meet with the resistant pets that survived.
After Eaton's fire, the Pasadena's animal protective society welcomed hundreds of animals while American society for the prevention of cruelty against animals and animal control officers helped to find and evacuate pets and stray dogs. This type of fast response is key, because pets in burned areas are at risk of starving, thirst or being attacked by predators.
In Pacific Palisades, few residents have been allowed to enter the area in search of pets. In general, the non -profit groups of animal welfare with rescuers of experienced animals have not been allowed searches.
That must change. Now, before it's too late and miss even more beloved pets.
After a disaster of this scale, the municipalities rush to gather resources and coordinate help offers. In Los Angeles, city officials made the decision to allow the entrance to evacuation zones only to humanitarian and animal control officials of the Animal Services Ángeles, the city's shelter system and the control officials of control of control of animals from other local governments. According to Mayor Karen Bass spokesman, it was a police decision to keep residents safe.
But residents are desperate to look for their animals, knowing that a scared and hidden dog will recognize their voices and go to them. Many animals are likely to roam their homes. The owners have resorted to non -profit animal welfare groups in search of help. Social Compassion, a non -profit animal protection group (which has a separate pressure arm) headed by Judie Mancuso, tried unsuccessfully to reach an agreement (a memorandum of understanding) with the city to allow its experienced rescue partners They will enter the burned areas.
It's time to let these people look for pets. Two and a half weeks since the fire devastated Palisades, this mission is more urgent than ever. Mancuso is receiving frantic calls from pet owners who expect the city to start demolishing the area soon. “But we are still trying to get these animals that remain there,” he said.
It is not that animal control officers are not doing a good job. Many have training on how to face disasters. They have been placing water and food stations and looking for cats, dogs and horses, and even trying to protect Koi ponds. Brilliant. But most animals need to be evacuated.
The city's shelter system has left room for hundreds of animals evacuated by fire. Non -profit groups transferred to other cities the animals that lived in shelters before the fires. There is also a direct line to which people with missing pets can call to leave information about the location of their home and the name of their pet, and people can send photographs to help with identification. Pet owners and animal welfare defenders say that initially the owners did not receive much feedback or response, but that the system is working better now.
The city would still be good for the help of animal rescuers with a history of cornering frightened animals and experience in how to place a human trap, prime it with food and make a cat between. These traps are usually accompanied by a camera on the ground. next to and a remote connection so that the rescuer can see what entered or touched the trap.
Rescuers arrive with a resident or with a list of addresses and pets they should look for. Sometimes they manage to take pictures of cats that have not yet been able to capture.
Lisa Kaas Boyle and her husband lost their home in Palisades. His cats, Blue and Vincent, were sighted separately and photographed by rescuers. “I already went through the grieving process and decided that I had lost everything. But after these photos send me, ”he said. “I thought: 'Please, return those cats and we will match it.'”
We should not underestimate the deep importance of pets in people's lives. During Hurricane Katrina, almost half of the people who refused to evacuate them because they could not take their pets. Following that disaster, Congress approved the Law of Transport and Evacuation Standards of 2006, which requires that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ensure that local emergency plans include care and refuge for pets and other animals during a disaster.
The official response of Los Angeles this month has been too slow and, until now, it has failed to coordinate enough with non -profit rescue organizations that are equipped to help in the fire zone. Some rescuers have infiltrated unofficially in Palisades during the last weeks. And sometimes animal control officers have helped them, unofficially. That is fantastic. Everyone should work together.
The rescuer Valarie Ianniello, co -founder of the Women's Welfare Group united by animal welfare, says that an animal control officer he met offered to replace the food in one of his traps. And when a cat who was trying to find appeared in a trap, it was the animal control officer who called her and said: “I have good news.” Following the protocol, the officer took the pet to a shelter.
Ianniello called the owner, who met at the shelter with his cat, Toasty, who is 22 years old and had survived 16 days since the Palisades fire began. “These cats,” said Ianniello, “really have nine lives, right?”
