Nobody at Winn-Dixie expected to be in a film about our rescue work but that is exactly what happened.

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Saving the pets of New Orleans
A film about those who helped pets after Katrina is heart-rending and hopeful
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Oregonian
Pets/disaster relief

Almost a year ago, like everyone else, I sat transfixed in front of the television, watching the frightened faces of New Orleans. But also, the plight of the city's pets became personal when I interviewed volunteers with the Oregon Humane Society who were in Louisiana in early September rescuing the animals for a story that ran on the front page of The Oregonian.

I believed the sadness of that time would never leave me. But it did. Before long my memories were pretty much a Walt Disney version of the tragedy. I mostly thought about the cats and dogs that found their ways to new happy homes.

Those good stories are important, but if we forget the rest, we are likely to face it again. If better planning for pets isn't in place, we could even face the same kind of tragedy in our own homes.

This week, Portland filmmaker Mike Shiley's new documentary, "Dark Water Rising: The Truth About Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescues," premieres at Cinema 21 and then moves to Laurelhurst Theater.

It's a sometimes painful, always poignant reminder of the dark days and sometimes sad endings of the lives of the animals of New Orleans. It's also a portrait of the courage of a disparate band of rescuers, and an insight into the dark side of pets in America. The rescuers

"When our government fails us -- and it will fail us again -- there are people from all walks of life that will put down their lives and go down and do the right thing," Shiley says. "That is the real message of the film. It's people standing up and taking over when elected officials fail us."

The film documents men and women crawling through barred windows, grimacing from the smell and the grime, triumphantly saving a scrawny cat. It shows them freeing snarling pit bulls, left alone in yards, kept in place by huge log chains padlocked around their collars. The rescuers were diverse, united by the single goal of saving as many animals as possible.

Much of the film focuses on a group of "gonzo" rescuers who worked outside the confines of authority developed by the organized rescue agencies. This group commandeered a Winn-Dixie as their headquarters.

The ragtag Winn-Dixie band were tough people. One man, arms covered with tattoos, cigarette hanging from his mouth, said, "I've seen dead people before. Dead people don't make me cry. But dead animals: The tears well up."

The Winn-Dixie crowd becomes a metaphor for the animals.

"The rescued pit bulls had their scars, and they were rescued by people with scars from their own fights," Shiley says.

The total efforts of all the groups -- from highly organized to loosely -- were impressive. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 animals were saved.

The horrors

While heroism is important, we must never forget the horrors of that place, Shiley says. The film documents some happy endings, but also shows the sometimes brutal ends to the lives of the animals of New Orleans.

Before Katrina, between 50,000 and 100,000 domestic animals were in the city. "Eighty percent of the animals of the city died," Shiley says. He shows some of these deaths graphically. (Hint for moviegoers: There's always music when the sad scenes are showing; you can close your eyes and just listen to the narrative -- that's what I mostly did.)

"I'm a documentary filmmaker. It's my job to show this," Shiley says. Some of the hardest footage to watch documents the lives of pit bulls. Rescuers estimate that at least 65 percent of the dogs that were left behind were pit bulls, and many of them were fighting dogs. Shiley includes controversial footage of a pit bull fight to underline the cruelty of the "sport."

"I put in the footage because of the audio of a dog screaming, like I would scream. I want to show that dogs get hurt, and they scream," he says.

Many of the rescued dogs are covered with scars from dogfights. The saddest part of the movie is what happened to dogs whose owners brought them through the flood to a school. When the people were rescued, they were forced to leave their dogs behind. The notes on the schoolroom walls made clear the fears of the people. One dog owner scrawled, "There is a very nice dog in here. Please do not shoot her. Please find her a good home. Her name is Angel." Angel was shot, like every other dog in the building, apparently by a St. Bernard Parish deputy sheriff.

The hope

The grimness of this movie is balanced by scenes of joy. There are jubilant reunions when people find their pets at an enormous makeshift shelter. One smiling woman clutches her cat a month after the hurricane, promising him tuna. "Let mama hold you," she croons. And there is the story of Rita, a pit bull found after Hurricane Rita tore through the city. She was tied on a short leash to a tree, her foot injured badly. This sweet dog was brought back to Oregon and adopted at the Oregon Humane Society. The film shows Rita going home with her new family, and later shows the family's little girl happily playing dress-up with the smiling dog. Rita looks perfect in pearls and giant butterfly wings.

Could it happen here?

Portland is among America's most animal-friendly cities. We go dining with our dogs and probably have more doggy-day-care businesses per capita than any other place on the planet. What happened in New Orleans couldn't happen here, right?

Wrong, Shiley says.

"We don't have a pet-evacuation plan in Portland. What do we have to do to get the attention of our local officials?"

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate passed a version of the PETS (Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards) Act, which was passed by the House in May. That legislation will require states to include pets as part of their disaster planning.

Still, what that plan will look like in Oregon isn't clear. If our homes are turned to rubble by an earthquake, will the rescue helicopter pick up our pets with us? Will they dispatch someone later to get the pets? Will animal rescuers accompany the crews who rescue humans? I spoke with representatives of the governor's office, the city of Portland office of emergency management, and the Oregon Humane Society, and every one said that animals would be a priority in the case of a disaster. But there are no plans in place for animal evacuations, and no one knew exactly how it would work. With no plan, our pets aren't safe.

The film

The film is scheduled for a 12-city tour. Plans also are being finalized for showings in England, the Netherlands and Australia.

"So, our premiere in Portland this week really is a world premiere," Shiley says. The opening will include a party afterward that everyone who comes to the event can attend (no extra admission charge). Some of the "stars" of the film, including Rita the pit bull, will be at the event.

Shiley says he hopes people will come see the documentary and remember what happens when no plan is in place. It's a way that we can testify that the lives of our animals are entwined with our own -- and that those lives matter.

Oregonian Pet Talk columnist Deborah Wood is the author of 10 books, including "Little Dogs: Training Your Pint-Sized Companion." You can reach her at TaoBowwow@aol.com.

©2006 The Oregonian

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To read more & to purchase Dark Water Rising please go to:
http://www.darkwaterrising.com/