News
Animal Rescue New Orleans – Three Years Post Katrina
September 24, 2008, 7:24AM MT
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ARNO Volunteers perform a “Miracle” rescue
ARNO Volunteers perform a “Miracle” rescue
Message from Charlotte Bass Lilly, Director of ARNO - 9/24/08
ARNO lost all our outside facilities to Gustav's high winds... our main warehouse/office did fine, as it did in Katrina. But we lost quite a bit amounting to about $35,000 in damages... all our outside kennels/run and turnout and rehab areas, our front TNR 24-hr staging area, iso areas, and 'diswashing' area, and our cat breezeway's end enclosures were blown out like toothpicks, we lost our perimeter cyclone fencing in the rear (the poles were bent like rubber), and our front wooden fence was not only blown down and splintered.... soooo we are trying to rebuild step by step. I keep reminding myself that our damage is slight compared to most people in southern Louisiana and Texas, but it is rough starting all this over again.
But we are resilient, we have to be. We are calling for volunteers as much as possible, because in the midst of all this destruction, our 6-day/week shelter director was deployed by Army Corps of Engineers for blue roof brigades in LA and TX, and our 6-day/week kennel manager evacuated for Gustav and never came back. So our only fulltime staff are gone.
I am taking it as a challenge, meeting all headon, and we will rebuild and this time make all impervious to high winds... it can be done.
Note: The below story was written several weeks prior to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike hitting Louisiana and Texas. The work of ARNO and other animal rescue organizations in response to the devastation of those two storms reinforce the concepts and thoughts expressed in this story.
by Lise N. McComiskey, ARNO Volunteer
People often wonder aloud when they see the words “Animal Rescue” written in gold across the navy blue tee shirts of many of our volunteers who still work in the field, i.e. the streets, nearly three years after Katrina ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. Many wonder how animal rescue is still underway or even needed and we often are asked just what our role is in a city that is in recovery in so many ways and yet stagnates in so many others. This story answers what to us is the obvious…whether there is a need for animal rescue. The ‘answers’ in this story are called Destiny and Miracle. On Monday, May 12, 2008, along with several other messages left on the Animal Rescue New Orleans voice-mail was a plea for help from a woman named Diana. It was not clear from the message just who Diana was or how she fit into this but she was calling because she was hearing from her second floor a disturbing sound... the sound of a kitten in distress. So how many people does it take to help a kitten in distress? Well, when the kitten is sealed up in the wall of an empty house, a house left vacant by owners relocated to Houston following Katrina, it just might take a few caring hearts to save this kitten.
After reviewing the messages early Tuesday, May 13, 2008, ARNO’s Executive Director immediately went into action, regardless of the fact that she would be departing New Orleans within hours to attend an animal sheltering conference out of state. ARNO’s director contacted some of her volunteers to assess the situation only and provided Diana’s phone number with instructions to work to obtain permission of the property owner to take further actions. Additionally, Charlotte immediately contacted the LA/SPCA, a humane organization charged with the responsibility of animal control in New Orleans and one which ARNO has worked under the auspices of since its first post-Katrina rescues in October 2005. Within a very short period of time, the Louisiana SPCA had arrived at the property and posted a notice that they could not hear or find the mewing kitten as reported. This cleared the way for ARNO to take the next step, measures we hoped would possibly save a life. Diana had reported hearing the kitten night after night, so as far as we were concerned there was a live animal trapped within the premises.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
What you can do:
Click here for more information on Animal Rescue New Orleans or if you are interested in volunteering or making a donation. ARNO needs donations and volunteers more than ever as they continue to meet the needs of animals impacted by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Story posted by Barbara J. Koll, Best Friends Network Volunteer with permission of Charlotte Bass Lilly, Director, ARNO
Photo by Laura Richard, used with permission of Charlotte Bass Lilly, Director, ARNO