Rich Crook, manager of Best Friends Rapid Response, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) team are in the Philippines having spent all day Tuesday in Laguna, south of Manila, where their three rescue teams and one assessment team had access to several boats. They rescued dogs and cats, and also a duck, who perked up a lot after spending the day in the boat with Rich’s team. A trip in the boat seemed to hit the spot for the tired duck.
Rich writes, “Laguna is still under 10 feet of water in some places and will likely be that way for a while. In addition to hands-on rescues, we fed another 25 or so animals in place. We made it through roughly half of Laguna today and hope to finish the rest by Friday. We do not have boats for tomorrow, so we will set out on foot. Laguna is a two hour drive one way, and rumor has it that Santa Cruz is even worse off, so we will likely move so that we’re staying a bit closer to there.
“We named the duck ‘Freebird.’ The duck appeared to be near death, but after an afternoon on the water with my team, he/she seemed to be as good as the day was old, and we became quite good friends. We took the rescued animals to Dr Nielson’s wildlife sanctuary (in Laguna) and released the duck. Off he went — happy as a lark.”
On Wednesday, Rich wrote, “We went to Sokul today, Sokul is south of Manila by about two hours... had a really good day. We provided food, water, and medicines to over 300 animals. I hoisted a local kid up onto a roof to take food to two kittens.
“The situation here is really bad, the reason being that the tributaries that drain water from Laguna bay have been blocked by debris, so water seems to be just sitting, and that's really bad for the animals. The water levels have gone down in and around Manila, but not so much down by Laguna Bay. Our team will be moving to Laguna so as to cut down on travel time… we spend no less than four hours a day in transit.”
Despite the difficult conditions and the depth of the floodwaters that are still up around 10 feet in some places, Rich and the IFAW team were happy to provide food, water, and medicine to many animals, to keep them going until their families can get back to their homes to take care of them.
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Photos: These are photos taken in the Philippines before the typhoon struck.
Top photo: © Caesar Ian Buslon / Dreamstime.com / A cat named Princess
Second photo: © Uros Ravbar / Dreamstime.com / A pig on a farm