After Katrina: Helping Animals, Helping PeopleAfter+Katrina.pdf · After Katrina: Helping Animals,...

Copyright by Deirdre Rand , Ph.D.

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After Katrina: Helping Animals, Helping People

Largest Emergency Animal Sheltering Operation in U.S. History

When Hurricane Katrina barreled down the Gulf Coast in 2005, one-and-

a-half million people fled their homes. Many left their pets behind with food and

water to last several days, not realizing the flooding and destruction that would

devastate the region and make it difficult, if not impossible, to return home

anytime soon. More than 250,000 pets — from cats and dogs to parrots and fish

— were left stranded in the storm’s destruction. Days turned into weeks, and

pets had to struggle to survive without supplies or the love and care of their

owners. The number of animals that died in conjunction with Hurricane Katrina

due to drowning, starvation, disease and misfortune is unknown but is thought to

be in the tens of thousands (Halligan, n.d.).

Animal rescuers from around the country poured into New Orleans and

the surrounding areas, saving dogs on roofs, cats in attics, and homeless pets


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wandering the streets. The heat and humidity were awful. The animals were

scared, confused and traumatized. Dogs who spent time in the polluted

floodwaters were often covered with burns and hairless patches from the toxins

in the water.

Rescued animals were brought to the Emergency Animal Sheltering

operation at the Lamar-Dixon Equine Exposition Center in Gonzales, Louisiana,

about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans. The Humane Society of the United

States was in charge of the operation. The Exposition Center consisted of six

horse barns and several arenas that were turned into a massive animal staging

area. Clusters of crates and airport carriers filled the horse stalls, providing

temporary shelter for dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and even some reptiles. Horses,

goats and pigs were also accommodated. It was a daunting task for the

volunteers to feed and hydrate the rescued pets, walk them all daily, and clean

out cages. Many animals needed medical attention.

Volunteers drove themselves to their limits to meet the enormous need

and were often exhausted and emotional. Abrams spent up to 14 hours a day

counseling animal rescue volunteers, veterinarians, staff memebers of HSUS and

the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA),

members of the National Guard, and the desperate pet owners who were

searching for their lost animals. Abrams slept on a cot in a large tent with almost

400 other people. She didn't get much rest, either.


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Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on August 29, 2005

The Emergency Animal Sheltering operation at Lamar-Dixon was the

largest in United States history. Between 1500 to 1800 newly rescued animals

were brought there every day. It wasn't long before the makeshift shelter at

Lamar-Dixon was overflowing. Rescued animals who had been brought there

were triaged and sent to shelters and humane organizations around the country to

make room for new arrivals. No one could keep up with tracking the transport of

animals as they came and went. This added to the heart ache, as in the situation

Dr. Abrams describes of the man who came to Lamar-Dixon every day to feed

and walk his mother's dog. His mother was staying in a Red Cross shelter

nearby, but pets were not allowed. One day the son arrived to find that his

mother's dog was gone, and no one knew where to.

Katina, Rita, and I by Lois Abrams


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Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Abrams had trained in Emergency Animal

Sheltering with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which was

running the operation at Lamar-Dixon. Approximately three weeks after Katrina

struck, Abrams and her friend Debbie Tate, L.C.S.W., were deployed by HSUS

to Lamar-Dixon, where they started volunteering on September 18, 2005. Less

than a week later, the people and animals at Lamar-Dixon had to be evacuated

because Hurricane Rita, another Catagory 5 storm, was on its way.

According to Abrams, there was a "Rap Tent" sent up in the open area

where people registered for their assignments but much of the counseling was

done while walking around the barns which housed the fortunate animals who

were saved. Abrams wrote that therapy in such an environment was vastly

different than in an office. It was not conventional therapy by any means.

Therapy was sometimes giving a person a bottle of water, a Gatorade, a

latte, a wet towel, having them sit down or go into an air-conditioned rest

room for a quick break, giving and transmitting information, telling a

joke, listening to a joke, spontaneous dancing and me playing my ukulele

to the animals and the humans. We drove for supplies, we tore down bags

of animal trash just before Rita hit and we had to evacuate. That was

therapy; along with doing what was helpful, being part of the entire team,

and knowing how to take care of ourselves so we could be there for

others.

I feel honored to have known so many individuals who gave of

themselves to help strangers and save animals. Doing a good deed is

therapy in and of itself! (Katrina, Rita and I)

At the time Dr. Abrams wrote this, she didn't know that she would be

mentioned in an award-winning book by one of the animal rescue volunteers she


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helped at Lamar-Dixon. The volunteer was Dr. Jenny Pavlovic, a biomedical

engineer from Minnesota. Pavlovic describes that bottle of water given to her by

a counselor named Lois in 8 State Hurricance Kate: Journey of a Katrina Cattle

Dog (2008).

8 State Hurricane Kate by Dr. Jenny Pavlovic

Jenny Pavlovic left two Australian Cattle Dogs at home while she traveled

to Louisiana to help care for the shell shocked dogs at Lamar-Dixon. Like

Abrams, Pavlovic's first full day volunteering was September 18, 2005. A

dappled blue Australian Cattle Dog had caught Pavlovic's eye the night before.

The dog was traumatized and in poor physical condition. Pavlovic called the dog

"Kate" because she was a Katrina rescue. Kate was an older dog with rotten

teeth. Pavlovic was worried that Kate wouldn't survive the stressful environment

at Lamar-Dixon much longer, let alone the stress of transport to a strange shelter

in another state. Pavlovic wanted to foster Kate at her home in Minnesota while

efforts were made to find the dog's owner. The problem was getting permission

from the decision makers in charge.

According to Pavlovic, the need for animal fosters during this period was

enormous, but the rule at the time was that fostering could only be done under

the auspices of organizations such as a humane society or an established rescue

group. No individual fosters were allowed. Pavlovic grew increasingly frustrated

by the amount of red tape involved at every level of decision-making.


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In 2013, while working on this course, I came across the book 8 State

Hurricane Kate. What attracted me was that "Kate" was an Australian cattle

dog, just like my dogs. Pavlovic was at Lamar-Dixon during same time frame as

Dr. Abrams. I just knew that Pavlovic was referring to Lois Abrams when she

wrote:

That day [September 19, 2005], I made many visits to the air conditioned

HSUS trailer to complete Kate's paperwork. The crisis counselors sat out

front in the heat and the decision-makers met inside. I waited there in the

mid-day heat while we took a break from walking dogs ... The crisis

counselors helped me race to fill out paperwork before the rules changed

again.

Lois, one of the counselors, gave me water [italics added] when I was

about to pass out from the heat. She became a bridge between the

decision-makers and the people on the front lines, who put blood sweat

and tears into caring for the animals.

As I filled out the paperwork from Lois, a man emerged from the trailer

and told her that he had decided not to take applications for individual

dogs. I spoke up to say that this dog was older, would not be chosen by

the shelters as adoptable, had been passed by for export, would not do

well on an airplane, needed to get out of the heat as soon as possible, and

had been through enough! I could get her to an air-conditioned local home

that very day if he would just tell me what I needed to do to legitimately

take her... Lois promised that she would find out what she could.

(Pavlovic, 2008, pp. 46-47)

After reading this account, I contacted Dr. Abrams who was thrilled to

learn about 8 State Hurricane Kate and contacted Pavlovic, who confirmed that

the counselor she was referring to was indeed Lois Abrams (personal

communication, August 2, 2013).


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Fostering Animal Rescues

Pavlovic persisted in her efforts to take Kate home as a foster and

eventually obtained permission. She had to drive across eight states to get to

Minnesota with Kate, hence the title 8 State Hurricane Kate: The Journey of a

Katrina Cattle Dog. Over the next year, Pavlovic put everything she had into

caring for Kate's medical and psychological needs, all the while trying to locate

Kate's owner. Pavlovic hoped that Kate would become friends with her own

dogs, but Kate wasn't socialized to other dogs and wanted her distance. Kate also

remained adamant that the household cat should go. Pavlovic loved Kate as she

was and worked with her limitations. Pavlovic treasured the time she had with

Kate, which wasn't long. One year after going to live with Pavlovic and her

family, Kate passed away. Her owner was never found.

Pavlovic poured her grief over Kate's death into writing 8 State Hurricane

Kate and establishing the 8 State Kate Fund, which provides financial relief to

care for animals in desperate situations. The animal rescue volunteers at Lamar-

Dixon shared a common bond and Pavlovic had become close friends with some

of them after everyone returned home. One of those friends was woman named

Sarah in Virginia. Sarah had obtained permission to foster a blind Golden

Retriever who was rescued from New Orleans after the hurricanes. Like Kate,

the Golden Retriever was an older dog. Sarah was very concerned that the blind

dog wouldn't survive being exported to a strange shelter in another part of the

country, and that he would be unadoptable even if he survived such a trip.


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Sarah had been fostering "Bruce" for three months when she was

contacted by the daughter of the dog's owner, who reported that her 87-year-old

father had died in Hurricane Katrina after refusing to evacuate without his dog.

Sarah was very attached to Bruce by this time and the prospect of having to

return him to the family troubled her. As it turned out, the daughter decided that

her father would have wanted Bruce to stay with Sarah and gave Sarah

permission to adopt him.

Blind Dog who Survived Katrina Becomes a Therapy Dog


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The blind Golden Retriever who lost his master and survived Hurricanes

Katrina and Rita was adopted by Sarah and became therapy dog. Bruce brought

love and comfort to the elderly as part of a nursing home visitation program.

Attachment and Loss

According to Pavlovic, reuniting Katrina's evacuees with their pets turned

out to be much more difficult than anyone expected because the people and pets

who survived were scattered far and wide. Many survivors did not have Internet

access and there was no way to track residents who were no longer in the area.

"A person could have been washed out to sea or could have evacuated with

nobody knowing whether they were alive or dead" (p.88). Pavlovic wrote.

Originally, volunteers who fostered rescued animals were asked to keep

their charges until mid October, 2005, while efforts were made to reunite pets

with their owners. If a pet was not claimed by that date, the foster parents could

adopt it. Many of the animal foster parents became attached to the rescued

animals they had been caring for and were eager to have their animal fosters

become permanent members of the family. It was painful for the animal foster

parents when the October deadline for being deemed adoptable was extended to

the end of 2005, then to March 1, 2006. As Pavlovic put it, that was a long time

to care for a dog and then have to give it back.

Pavlovic described the heart wrenching experience of a friend named

Cindy who was forced to return "Gonzo," the rescued rat terrier she'd been

fostering. The owner reportedly contacted Cindy on the evening of October 14,

2005, demanding the return of his dog in accordance with the October 15


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deadline in effect at the time. Cindy wrote to Pavlovic that the look on Gonzo's

face was pitiful as she drove him to the drop off point for returning Gonzo to his

owner. It was as if Gonzo knew that Cindy was sending him somewhere without

her. "I had Gonzo longer than the owner had had him before the storm" (p. 81),

Cindy wrote to Pavlovic.

The Not Without My Dog Resource and Record Book

According to Jenny Pavlovic, caring for the animals rescued after Katrina

made her more aware of the plight of lost animals and their families. She began

thinking about what can go wrong after an epic disaster or even on an ordinary

day. She also began thinking about a disaster preparedness plan to prevent the

loss of her own pets. Pavlovic added an appendix to 8 State Hurricane Kate

titled "What you can do now to prevent your dog from getting lost, and to help

you find a lost dog."

Dr. Pavlovic created The Not Without My Dog Resource and Record Book

(2010). She emphasizes the importance of having photos of you and your dog in

the record book. The book will help you get organized and cover all the bases.

You can fill in your pet related information in stages. One of the first things that

I did was to create an emergency backpack for our dogs, which is kept in the hall

closet by the front door so we can just grab it on the way out in case we need to

evacuate.


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A Veterinarian's Perspective

Dr. Abrams reports that a Veterinary Medical Assistance Team set up a

M.A.S.H. type unit for animals in Barn 1 at Lamar-Dixon. Dr. Karen Halligan,

D.V.M. was the veterinarian in charge at Lamar-Dixon while Drs. Abrams and

Pavlovic were volunteering there. Dr. Halligan was the Director of Veterinary

Services for the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

which meant she was responsible for providing veterinary care for all the

animals in Louisiana who were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I

found a first-hand account of Dr. Halligan's Lamar-Dixon experience on her

website.

The majority of animals coming in were underweight, dehydrated and

covered in dry sludge with a distinct odor. There were dogs with scabies,

parvo, bite wounds, fungal infections and hyperthermia.

I began to feel like I was in a MASH unit, with animals instead of humans

as patients. One black German shepherd had a temperature of 108 degrees

F, and was quickly placed in an ice bath. One VMAT [Veterinary Medical

Assistance Team] estimated that 60 to 80 percent of the rescued animals

most likely had or would develop heartworm; unlike California, the Gulf

Coast has a prevalence of heartworm and mosquitoes.

Their poor bellies were bloated from malnutrition and parasites, and their

gums were white from shock and dehydration. After administering

medicine for shock, diarrhea and parasites, I placed them in a freshly

cleaned crate with a large bowl of puppy kibble and water. They quickly

gobbled up the food and literally fell asleep face-first in kibble. I checked

on them daily and was relieved to see them rapidly improve. At the end of

my stay in Louisiana, I left knowing that, at the very least, I made a difference for three puppies whose faces I will never forget. (Halligan,

"Hurricane Katrina: The Animals and the Aftermath")


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"At least I made a difference for three puppies!"

Dr. Halligan estimated that 15 to 20 percent of the rescued animals were

eventually returned to their owners. In her view, it's crucial to take your pets

with you when you evacuate, assuming that's possible. Some New Orleans

residents were threatened with arrest if they refused to evacuate without their

pets. Evacuees with pets who made it to the Superdome were not allowed to

bring pets inside. If you're away from home when disaster strikes, you may not

be allowed return home for your pet until authorities deem the area safe and the

danger of flood, fire, or earthquake damage is under control. Have a disaster

preparedness plan that includes your pets and what to do if you and your pets are

separated.

Make sure your dog or cat is micro chipped and that all your pets are

wearing a collar with a legible identification tag. Plan a safe way to transport


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your dog or cat, such as a dog crate or cat carrier. The website for the Humane

Society of the United States (HSUS) has a page on disaster preparedness with

pets which recommends that you have sturdy leashes, harnesses, and carriers on

hand to transport pets safely and to ensure that your pets can't escape, i.e. get

injured or lost in fire, flood or earthquake conditions. Your pet may have to stay

in the carrier for hours at a time. Carriers should be large enough to allow your

pet to stand comfortably, turn around, and lie down. Smaller pets may also need

blankets or towels for bedding and warmth as well as special items, depending

on their species. According to Zottarelli (2010), research on evacuation failure

found that one of the reasons cat owners refuse to evacuate is not having a cat

carrier on hand.

Know where you're going to take your dog or cat. Plan with neighbors,

friends, or relatives to have someone available to care for or evacuate your pet if

you are unable to get home. Dr. Halligan has an Emergency Preparedness page

on her website which includes an excellent 5 minute video of Halligan

demonstrating how to do cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a dog.

Microchip Your Pet

In 2012, NBC reported on the story of a small white poodle who was

separated from his owners after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 and reunited with

them four years later (Eng, 2012). "Shorty" was 15-years-old by then. Someone

found him wandering the streets in North Carolina. He was in sorry shape and

brought to a veterinary clinic, where he was scanned for microchip. This enabled

the veterinary staff to get in touch with his original owners in Louisiana.


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According to one of the veterinarians, the owners were ecstatic about getting

their dog back, whether he lived another three months or three years.

Lost dog reunited with owners after four years

A microchip implant is an identifying transponder that is placed under the

skin of a dog, cat, parrot, horse or other pet. The chip is about the size of a

large grain of rice. Externally attached microchip ear tags are commonly used to

identify cows, pigs, and other farm and ranch animals. Pigs and goats were

among the animals rescued from the floodwaters and brought to Lamar-Dixon,

where external ear tags would have been important to Katrina survivors who

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_identification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_tag


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were searching for lost farm animals. Some external microchips can be read with

the same scanner used to read implanted microchips.

For dogs and cats, microchips can be implanted by a veterinarian or at a

shelter. The microchip is implanted under the skin on the back of the neck. After

checking that the animal does not already have a chip, the vet or technician

injects the chip with a syringe and records the chip's unique ID number. No

anesthetic is required. An enrollment form is completed with the chip ID

number, owner contact information, pet name and description, shelter and/or

veterinarian contact information, and an alternate emergency contact designated

by the pet owner. The form is sent to a registry, which may be the chip

manufacturer, distributor or an independent entity. The owner receives a

registration certificate with the chip ID and recovery service contact information.

Some veterinarians leave registration to the owner, usually done online. Like an

automobile title, the certificate with the chip ID number serves as proof of

ownership and is transferred with the animal when it is given away, traded or

sold. An animal without a certificate could be stolen.

Authorities, veterinarians and shelters routinely examine strays for

microchips so they can notify the owner or other contact person. An owner can

also report a missing pet to the registration and recovery service, as vets look for

chips in new animals and check with the registration and recovery service to see

if the stray pet has been reported lost or stolen. Many veterinarians scan an

animal's chip on every visit to make sure the microchip is operating correctly.

Some enter the pet's chip ID in their database and print the microchip number on

receipts, test results, vaccination certifications and other records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_%28property%29


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An ID chip without current contact information on the recovery service

registry is essentially useless. Make sure to update your contact information

periodically.

Studies of Pet Loss in Katrina: Zottarelli (2010)

The tragedy of Katrina and the plight of stranded animals captured

national media attention and the interest of the general public. Prior to this time,

much of the research on loss of a pet focused on the death of companion animals

under "normal" conditions, such as death due to illness or old age. The aftermath

of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provided an opportunity to explore the effects of

pet loss in a complicated, widespread disaster. There are three studies of pet loss

in Katrina that I know of. Of these, the study by Zottarelli (2010) has the largest

sample size and is the most comprehensive.

Dr. Lisa Zottarelli is a researcher with the Department of Sociology and

Social Work at Texas Woman's University in Houston. Her research is based on

a sample of 1,510 Katrina survivors. The participants were randomly selected

from a database of over 460,000 people who sought any form of assistance from

the American Red Cross and affiliated organizations as a result of Hurricane

Katrina. Survey data was collected by the Gallup Organization in

September/October, 2005, in close proximity to Katrina and Rita.

In Zottarelli's sample, 67% of participants evacuated before Katrina hit, 18

% evacuated afterwards, and 15% did not evacuate. Almost 300 people in the

sample experienced the loss of a pet in Katrina. Zottarelli explored two themes:

1) pre existing disaster vulnerability characteristics, such as race and poverty,


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among people who experienced pet loss in Katrina and 2) pet loss in association

with evacuation behaviors, owner injury, separation from family or loss of one's

home. Social vulnerability characteristics are demographic factors such as race

and poverty which are associated with greater losses in disaster. Zottarelli

opined that Hurricane Katrina was even more catastrophic due to the high level

of social vulnerability among the affected residents. Zottarelli reported that

many people who evacuated after the flooding in New Orleans were forced to

abandon their pets under threat of arrest.

Zottarelli discusses several studies of failed evacuation behavior by S.E.

Heath and colleagues. One was a case study of 17 families who were affected by

a tornado. The study found that humans and animals were at risk for failed

evacuation when pet owners were unable to evacuate effectively with their

companion animals. Obstructing people's ability to evacuate with their pets

increased the likelihood of unauthorized re entry into the impact zone in an

effort to save companion animals. Another study examined evacuation behavior

in two disaster events, a flood and a toxic chemical spill. Failed evacuation was

linked to several pet related demographic factors: 1) pet ownership; 2) pet owner

with more than one dog; 3) presence of an outdoor dog; and 4) cat owner

without a cat carrier on hand. Approximately 80% of the unauthorized re entries

into the evacuation zone were in an effort to rescue pets.

Zottarelli did an analysis which combined her findings for demographics,

vulnerability characteristics, pet loss, evacuation behavior, and traumatic events

in addition to pet loss, such as loss of family member or loss of one's house. Her

findings were statistically significant for five factors:


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Age - Younger adults were more likely to experience pet loss than

older people;

Evacuation behavior - People who evacuated were more likely to

experience pet loss;

Staying in an emergency shelter - Evacuees who stayed one night or

more in an emergency shelter were more likely to experience pet loss;

Physically injured in the hurricane - Individuals who were injured in

the hurricane had a greater likelihood of pet loss;

Separation from family - Individuals who were separated from family

for 24 hours or more were more likely to experience loss of a pet.

In the Discussion, Zottarelli notes that previous research has shown that

families tend to evacuate as a unit. In her study, some of the families who had

pets split up. Zottarelli found that being separated from family for a day or more

was associated with a higher probability of pet loss. The fact that pets weren't

allowed in the emergency shelters for evacuees may have forced some families

to choose: either keep the human family together and leave the pet behind, or

someone in the family stay behind and take care of the family pet, while the rest

of the family evacuates. The 87-year-old man described in 8 State Hurricane

Kate could have evacuated with his children, but there was some kind of

complication because he had more than one dog. The idea of leaving his dogs

behind to fend for themselves in the storm was intolerable. The man chose to

stay with his dogs rather than evacuate with his family, a choice that cost him his

life.


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Studies of Pet Loss in Katrina: Lowe et al. (2009)

The 2009 study by Lowe, Rhodes, Zwiebach, and Chan surveyed a sample

of 365 primarily low-income African American single mothers who were

initially part of an educational intervention study. All the participants

experienced Hurricane Katrina, and 47% also experienced Hurricane Rita. The

study compared survey data collected before Katrina and after Rita. Sixty three

of the 365 participants experienced pet loss in Katrina. Among other things,

Lowe et al. found that pet loss in Katrina significantly predicted post disaster

psychological distress, an effect that was stronger for younger participants.

These researchers found that pet loss significantly predicted post disaster distress

above and beyond other demographic variables and perceived social support.

Studies of Pet Loss in Katrina: Hunt, Al-Awadi, and Johnson (2008)

Hunt, Al-Awadi, and Johnson (2008) utilized a sample of 65 participants

who were predominantly Caucasian, female, and college educated. Research

subjects were recruited online and completed a series of online questionnaires.

All the participants had owned pets prior to Katrina. There were 27 cat owners,

23 dog owners, 14 participants who owned both cats and dogs, and one

participant who had a pet parrot. Forty seven percent of the participants were

displaced from their homes by the hurricane, and 42% were forced to abandon

their pets.


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Hunt et al. found that pet loss significantly predicted symptoms of acute

stress, peri-traumatic dissociation and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),

indicating that being forced to abandon one's pet during an evacuation is

associated with acute stress and longer term symptoms of PTSD. Pet loss and

displacement from the home interacted in predicting depressive symptoms. By

comparison, people who were able to keep their pets and their homes had the

lowest levels of depressive symptoms. Hunt et al. concluded that rescuing pets in

disaster may be logistically and economically challenging, but the benefits to the

psychological well being of people own a dog or cat are substantial.

Smithsonian's Hurricane Digital Memory Bank

Shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Smithsonian launched the

Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, using electronic media to collect, preserve and

present first-hand survivor accounts, on-scene images, blog postings, and pod

casts. Zottarelli had this to say about the project:

The importance of nonhuman animals to the story of Hurricane Katrina

can be no more clearly illustrated than when Smithsonian representatives

visited the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center to gather artifacts of the tragedy and

collected items such as capture-poles used to rescue dogs and cats. (p.111)

In late September 2005, Smithsonian staff member David Shayt and

photographer Hugh Talman left for the Gulf Coast on the first of two trips to

collect artifacts and documentation. In "Creating the Smithsonian's Katrina

Collection," Shayt points out:

The idea of museum collections built from disasters, natural or man-made,

can be unsettling. Yet collections are the basis of everything that history


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museums do. This explains why in the weeks after 9/11 the Smithsonian

Institution began gathering artifacts from the World Trade Center, the

Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed to earth

in an effort to capture something of the material record of what happened

that day. And it explains why shortly after Katrina collided with the Gulf

Coast the curatorial staff of the National Museum of American History

met to consider the problem of collecting artifacts to support future

museum exhibitions, public programs, websites, and publications that

might address this exceptional hurricane and its aftermath. (2006, p. 357)

The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank is available to the public online at

http://hurricanearchive.org/. I did a search of the Digital Memory Bank website

for the town of "Gonzales," where Lamar-Dixon is located. This yielded more

than 140 images of the Emergency Animal Sheltering operation there! The

search I did for "animal rescue" yielded 364 items, including a number of

personal accounts by hurricane survivors. Excerpts from one of these accounts

can be found below, in the section titled "Happy Ending for Three Katrina Cats."

Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act

Hurricane Katrina brought the plight of stranded companion animals in

disaster to the fore. For the first time, the general public questioned whether it

was a good idea to force pet owners to evacuate and leave their pets behind. This

newfound support for the importance of preserving the bond between people and

their pets led policy makers to pass the Pets Evacuation and Transportation

Standards Act (PETS) in 2006. The legislation requires local and state

emergency preparedness authorities to include pets and service animals in their

disaster evacuation plans.


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It should be noted that a "service animal" is legally defined in the

Americans with Disabilities Act as a dog [or miniature horse] that is individually

trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a

physical or psychiatric disability. The work or tasks performed by the service

animal must be related to the handler's disability. Guide dogs for the blind are

the most well known example of service dogs, but there are also service dogs for

the hearing impaired, people with mobility impairments and people with

psychiatric disabilities, to name a few others.

First and foremost, service dogs are considered to be working dogs, not

just household pets. The term "service dog" has a precise definition in law and

should not be confused with the activities of a "therapy dog." Generally

speaking, a therapy dog and its handler work as a team to provide benefits to

many different people. A service dog has a single handler who is the sole

recipient of the dog's services. Service dogs and their handlers have legally

mandated public access rights. Therapy dogs do not have such rights.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislates that the service dog

for a disabled person is entitled to accompany the handler in public places where

dogs are not otherwise allowed. It was one of the shames of disaster relief in

Katrina that disabled people with service dogs were often forced to evacuate and

leave their dogs behind. Red Cross shelters for disaster evacuees had a strict no

pets policy, so disabled persons who managed to evacuate with their service

dogs might still be forced to separate from their animals in order to take refuge

in an emergency shelter. having a roof over their heads. The PETS legislation


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helped clarify the public access rights of service dogs and their handlers in

disaster, consistent with the provisions of the ADA.

The passing of the PETS legislation reflects a greater social awareness of

the link between rescuing pets along with their owners and compliance with

evacuation orders. It puts pet owners and first responders at risk when people

refuse to evacuate out of concern for leaving their pets behind. Pet owners who

don't evacuate at the outset may have to be rescued later on, under more

hazardous conditions.

Impact of PETS on Evacuation Behavior of Pet Owners

In 2007, New York City assembled a task force to help with pet friendly

emergency planning. The result, according to the experts, is that New York has

the strongest implementation of the PETS Act in the country. In the wake of

Hurricane Sandy, for example, all of New York City’s shelters, taxis, and even

public transportation systems, were required to accept pets.

When Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast of the United States in 2011, Dr.

Melissa Hunt, lead author of one of the Katrina pet loss studies, saw it as an

opportunity to examine the impact of the PETS legislation on the frequency and

ease of evacuation among pet owners in mandatory evacuation areas (Hunt,

Bogue, & Rohrbaugh, 2012).

To attract the most representative sample possible, the researchers

recruited participants through various websites, running classified ads in

newspapers, posting flyers, making randomized phone calls, and approaching

people in the Atlantic City Train Station. For the most part, one must have a


24

research grant of some kind in order to conduct a study which is this manpower

intensive. Ninety pet owners and 27 non-pet owners who lived in mandatory

evacuation zones during Hurricane Irene were surveyed about whether or not

they evacuated and about their experiences during the hurricane. Of the 90 pet

owners in the study, 77% owned at least one dog and 57% owned at least one cat

(some participants owned more than one pet). Most of the participants in the

study were Caucasian. The majority were well off financially, with 50%

reporting annual household incomes greater than $ 75,000 and 35% reporting

household incomes between $ 40,000 and $ 75,000. Participants were given

surveys which contained specific questions on two dimensions: 1) pet owners

versus non pet owners and 2) participants who evacuated versus those who did

not evacuate.

As a result of the PETS act, all local municipalities must now have pet-

friendly emergency shelters in place. However, 51% of the pet owners in this

study failed to evacuate, and those who did typically sheltered with friends or

family. Reasons given for evacuation failure often included the desire to look

after one's property, and the perception that Hurricane Irene was not that

threatening. That perception may have been realistic, given that none of the

participants lost a pet or a human loved one in Hurricane Irene. Overall, pet-

owners evacuated at the same rate as non pet-owners.

Only 6% of all evacuators (both pet and non pet owners), chose to shelter

at an emergency evacuation shelter. Hunt et al. (2012) opined that this may have

been due to the fact that their sample was relatively affluent, had multiple social

resources, and had access to cars to transport themselves and their pets. They


25

compared this to the demographic findings in the aftermath of Hurricane

Katrina, which suggested that less affluent and minority individuals bore the

brunt of the negative sequelae, and had fewer resources available to them to aid

in successful evacuation.

Interestingly, individuals who owned two or more cats reported that

evacuation was significantly more difficult than for individuals with no cats, or

only one cat (p < 0.001). "One participant explicitly told us that after 10 h in the

car with three howling cats stuck in traffic and waiting for ferries, they would

not choose to evacuate again" (p. 537). Hunt et al. opine that the difficulties of

evacuating with multiple cats may put these individuals at risk for evacuation

failure, and that municipalities may want to pay special attention to these

particular pet owners in the future. Owning one or more dogs was not

significantly associated with evacuation difficulty in this study.

Complicated Losses in Katrina

Dr. Froma Walsh with the University of Chicago opines that the grief of

losing a beloved pet can be profound, with a mourning process that takes six

months or more (2009). Some people experience the loss of a pet as poignantly

as they would the loss of a human family member. The impact of losing a pet

and the intensity of the grief can be complicated by the timing and circumstances

of the loss. Grief may be felt more deeply if the human-animal bond was

particularly strong, the loss was sudden and unexpected, the death of a pet was


26

the result of deliberate harm, or the pet owner is coping with additional losses

unrelated to their pet.

Walsh describes two types of complicated loss that are particularly

relevant to Katrina survivors who lost their pets. One is "ambiguous loss," which

occurs when the fate of a missing pet is unknown or uncertain. The other is

"forced separation," when the owner is forced to relinquish a valued pet.

According to Walsh,

One of the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina involved the agonizing decision

many residents had to make: whether to leave their pets behind in order to

escape floodwaters. Some refused to abandon cherished pets. Many, with

great difficulty, took pets with them, only to be forced to separate later

when authorities would not allow animals in buses or shelters. (p. 488)

The Emergency Animal Sheltering operation at Lamar-Dixon was

overwhelmed by the daily influx of newly rescued animals. To make room,

animals at the emergency shelter were exported to humane societies and rescue

groups across the country. It was impossible to keep track of individual animals,

making it more difficult for pet owners to locate their pets. The number of

people who were separated from family and displaced from their homes by

Hurricane Katrina was also unprecedented. It was difficult just to find individual

family members, let alone family pets. Some survivors didn't have access to a

computer, or were not computer literate.

The studies of pet loss in Katrina, discussed above, divided pet owners

into two groups, those who lost a pet, and those who did not. None of these

studies had a category for pet owners who had lost a pet in Katrina but were

subsequently reunited. The data for these studies was collected approximately


27

two or three months after Katrina and Rita, when the consequences of the

disaster were still unfolding and the fate of individual pets and family members

was often unknown. People who had been separated from their pets did not yet

know if their animals had died or if they had been rescued. For the most part,

they had no way of knowing if they would ever be reunited with their pets. Even

if they were able to locate their pets, they might not be in a position to take care

of them.

Volunteers who were fostering rescued animals also had to live with

uncertainty. Many were asked to keep their animal fosters on a temporary basis

for six months or more before they were allowed to adopt them. They didn't

know if they would be forced to relinquish their charges to the rightful owner, or

if they would be able to formally adopt their chargers when the six month

waiting period was over. Animal foster parents who were able to adopt their

charges usually felt relieved. Relief quickly turned to panic if the adoptive

family was contacted by the previous owner after the designated six month

period for owners to find and reunite with their pets. Many pet owners who lost

their animals in Katrina, Rita, or the devastation left by these storms, suffered

"ambiguous losses," making it difficult to fully mourn the loss of a beloved pet.

Examples of AAT & Pet Loss in Disaster

Cynthia Chandler tells the story of a boy's forced separation from his dog

during Hurricane Katrina (2008). Chandler was volunteering with her therapy

dogs at a Red Cross shelter for Katrina evacuees in Dallas, where many

evacuees had lost loved ones or become separated from other family members.


28

Chandler was visiting evacuees at the shelter when a nine-year-old boy told a

heartbreaking story of having to choose between saving his brother or saving his

dog and her puppies as the flood waters in New Orleans rose. The situation was

desperate and time was running out. The boy succeeded in saving his brother,

but the mother dog and her pups drowned. The boy was overcome with guilt and

grief. In this instance, the forced separation was caused to some degree by

natural forces.

Abrams tells the story of a 10-year-old boy she met while she and her

Cavalier Spaniel Duke were visiting evacuees who had escaped the wildfires

raging in Southern California in November, 2003. A makeshift shelter had been

set up inside a hanger at the San Bernardino International Airport. The air was

chilly outside. Inside, the mood of the evacuees was somber. A boy named

Dustin lay silent and still on his cot. Duke scampered past Abrams, jumped on

Dustin's cot, and snuggled up to the boy, who put his arm around the dog. The

boy didn't know whether the wildfires had burned his home, and he was worried

about his tabby cat who was missing. There were 2,000 people inside the shelter

but no one had been able to comfort the boy until Duke came along.

This was in 2003, before the PETS act was passed, so it's possible that

rescuers forced the family to evacuate without their cat. Perhaps the fire was so

close that the family was fleeing for their lives and didn't have time to collect the

cat. Perhaps the cat put up a fuss about being put in a carrier, or perhaps they

didn't have a cat carrier on hand.

Self-Help for Dealing with Loss of a Pet


29

Perhaps you're mourning the death of a pet, or you're trying to help

someone else whose pet died. Perhaps you're seeing a family in which the

parents want your advice on how to talk to the children about death. The Pet

Partners website is a good resource for dealing with pet loss and bereavement.

The website for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

(ASPCA) is also a good resource.

The ASPCA website has a page devoted to Frequently Asked Questions

about Pet Less. There's also a Pet Loss Hotline you can call. There are

suggestions for activities you can do with your child to help your child grieve

when the family pet dies. The activities include: encouraging your child to draw

a picture of their pet, perhaps asking your child to tell a story about the picture;

creating a special photo album celebrating the good times with your pet; and

having a memorial service as you bury the pet together in your backyard. One

mother I know created a collage in memory of "Max," the family dog (see

below).

You may recall the story I told about the death of my kitten Misty when I

was a child. This was my first experience of death, and the pain of losing my

sweet little kitten was unbearable. To sooth myself, I composed a song about

Misty's death and sang it for hours, accompanying myself on the piano. If you

think you or a loved one needs professional help, you might want to see a

counselor or psychotherapist who is knowledgeable about the impact that death

of a pet can have on individuals and families.


30

"We love you Max"

Even adults can benefit from having an improvised memorial ceremony

when a pet dies. When our dog Jasmine died, our friend Bernie came with my

husband and me to pick up her body at the vets. Bernie placed the body in the

back of his pick up truck, as if it were a hearse. Then he drove us slowly down a

main street with the headlights flashing, signaling passers by that it was funeral


31

party mourning the death of a loved one. The event was all the more remarkable

for the fact that Jasmine, who was so afraid of people, let Bernie pet her for the

first time just before she died.

Happy Ending for Three Katrina Cats

After Katrina, humane officers with the Louisiana SPCA went from

neighborhood to neighborhood in New Orleans, combing the area for animals.

Humane officers searched more than 7, 000 homes where animals were

reportedly left behind. Sometimes Dr. Halligan went along on these searches. If

a live animal was found, that animal was rescued and taken to Lamar-Dixon or

to one of the auxiliary animal shelters in the area, such as the one set up at the

nearby Dixon Correctional Institute (Grimm, 2013).

Here's the story of a man whose cats were rescued after he was forced to

evacuate without them. I found this account on the Smithsonian's Hurricane

Digital Memory Bank website.

On Sunday, September 4, 2005 the Louisiana State Police came driving

down St. Claude Avenue and announced over a loud speaker that

everyone had to be out of the city by 5:00 today. I was forced to leave my

babies behind with enough food and water to last until I was able to rescue

them...Without water they would not have survived very long [in the

intense heat]. With the help of the Humane Society I was able to have

them rescued on September 9th. (Webster, 2013)

On September 10, 2005, the owner was reunited with two of his three cats,

who he found in the last row of rescued animals at Lamar-Dixon. He found his

third cat, Creech, in the triage room at the Louisiana State University (LSU)


32

agricultural center. Creech had been accidentally dropped twice in the toxic

waters when her owner tried to escape the rising flood waters in New Orleans on

August 30th.

Happy Ending

After I did not find her [Creech] at Lamar Dixon and it was getting dark,

they suggested I try LSU where they were taking any sick animals. My

brother made a call [to LSU] and they said a cat matching Creech's

description was in the triage room. We drove up to Baton Rouge and they

were getting ready to close for the night but I produced some very sincere

tears and was lead back to the triage room.

I saw three cats in the room and although they had calico markings like

Creech they were not my baby. I was very depressed and turned to leave

when the vet tech there said what about the cat in the carrying case on the


33

floor that I had walked past? As I knelt down first I recognized her collar

and her nose and yes it was my Creech! Wow what a day that I will never

forget! (Webster, 2013)

Therapy Dogs at the Dallas Arena Shelter

Cynthia Chandler, Ed.D., is a licensed professional counselor and a

professor in the College of Education at the University of North Texas. Chandler

developed a curriculum on Animal-Assisted Therapy in counseling and teaches a

course on AAT at the university. Chandler acquired two therapy dogs as part of

her grant proposal for creating the course. Chandler had happy memories of the

American Cocker Spaniels she grew up with as a child and chose that breed to

assist her in doing AAT at the Juvenile Detention Center in Denton, Texas.

Chandler wrote the book on Animal-Assisted Therapy in Counseling, literally

(Chandler, 2005, 2012). Like Dr. Abrams, Dr. Chandler became a volunteer

Evaluator and Instructor for Pet Partners, previously known as the Delta Society.

Soon after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,

Chandler and her dogs began visiting Katrina evacuees at the Dallas Reunion

Arena shelter (2008).

Following Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of displaced persons were

transported to emergency Red Cross shelters across the country. The shelters

were intended to provide evacuees with a place to stay on a short-term basis.

They continued to operate much longer than expected due to the fact that so

many survivors had lost so much and needed time and resources to get back on

their feet. Many evacuees ended up in Red Cross shelters throughout Texas.

The American Counseling Association and the National Board for


34

Certified Counselors partnered with the American Red Cross to deploy

approximately 4,600 licensed mental health professionals to assist in the Katrina

disaster relief effort (Uhernik, 2008). It's possible that Chandler registered as a

disaster mental health counselor with the American Red Cross well in advance,

before the mass recruitment of volunteers. She began volunteering the first day

evacuees began arriving at the Dallas Reunion Arena, circa September 3, 2005.

Chandler felt sure that her therapy dogs would bring comfort and cheer to

the shelter evacuees, many of whom had been separated from loved ones and

didn't know if they would have homes to return to. She wanted to visit with her

therapy dogs, but the dogs were not allowed to accompany her inside the shelter

at first. Chandler sought permission from the Red Cross, but encountered

resistance on the part of Red Cross administrators and the Dallas City Manager,

who initially did not understand the concept of professional therapy dogs. By the

third day, everything was worked out and Chandler was allowed to bring her

registered therapy dogs inside.

In "Animal Assisted Therapy with Hurricane Katrina Survivors,"

Chandler comments that the initial prohibition against bringing her dogs inside

gave her the opportunity to compare how the evacuees responded to the

counselors when there were no dogs present and their response when the dogs

were permitted inside. The difference Chandler observed was dramatic. Without

the dogs, the volunteer mental health counselors were extremely frustrated

because the evacuees did not want to tell their stories or talk about their personal

trauma with the counselors.


35

Say what? No dogs permitted?

Chandler notes that race may have been a factor, as the evacuees were

predominantly African American, while the mental health counselors were

Caucasian. Once Chandler's therapy dogs were allowed to accompany her inside,

they formed a bridge between the evacuees and the counselors.


36

When people heard the jingle noise of the dogs’ tags they looked up to

locate the source and when they saw the jolly, freckle-faced cockers

coming people sitting on their cots smiled, got up off of their cots and

came over to greet us part way... Shocked, grief-stricken faces gave way

to pleasant grins and laughs upon seeing the dogs. ...unlike the non-AAT-

DR [Animal Assisted Disaster Response] counseling, almost every

evacuee we encountered spoke with the counselors at length while petting

the dogs.

An extraordinary pattern emerged when the dogs were present. First

evacuees asked numerous questions about the pets, such as, name, gender,

age, breed, and “Are they twins?” Second, evacuees shared their worry

over the pets they left behind and some shed tears at this time. And third,

evacuees segued right into discussing details about their Hurricane

Katrina trauma, loss and evacuation. The presence of the therapy dogs had

removed the barriers that had been impeding the sharing process by

evacuees...over the previous two days. (Chandler, 2008)

Staff and volunteers at the shelter also wanted to interact with Rusty and

Dolly. They found that the dogs made evacuees more willing to accept supplies

and services that were critically needed. According to Chandler, the job of the

volunteer mental health counselors at the shelter involved a great deal of

assessment, triage, and providing information. Many of the people who had been

stranded in the New Orleans Convention Center or Superdome had been without

their prescription medications, including psychotropic drugs, for over a week.

Many evacuees could not remember the names of their medications.

Facilitating liaison with the onsite psychiatrist and medical staff (who

were also volunteering) was extremely important.

Counselors gathered detailed descriptions of the evacuees lost medication

and self-reported symptoms to assist an onsite psychiatrist in writing new


37

prescriptions. Emotionally and mentally disabled persons had been

separated from caretakers in the chaotic departure from New Orleans and

needed assessment and placement with local agencies. Counselors assisted

evacuees in making important contacts...

Many were trying to contact friends and family who were not affected by

the hurricane so they would not have to remain long at the temporary

Dallas shelter. Survivors were anxious to contact state and federal

agencies to report the loss of property and change of address. Many

survivors were not computer literate and needed assistance with using

onsite internet service at the shelter...

The therapy dogs helped people release emotions and receive healing

nurturance. Evacuees shared with the therapy dog team many stories of

tragedy. Many had lost loved ones to death, both humans and pets. One

nine-year-old boy told a heartbreaking story of having only enough time to

save his brother and could not save his dog and her puppies from drowning

before the water got too high. He was overcome with guilt and grief. (2008)

Chandler took turns working with each of her dogs on alternate days. Both

dogs worked together side-by-side one day when Chandler was joined by a

graduate assistant who had training in animal assisted counseling. Chandler

reported that interacting with approximately 100 very stressed adults and

children every day was exhausting. Although Rusty and Dolly maintained their

calm, cheerful attitude, they became visibly fatigued as the day progressed.

Chandler looked after the welfare of her dogs, giving them multiple breaks to

manage their stress and limiting their work at the shelter to six hours a day. At

day's end, Rusty and Dolly received a replenishing massage. The measures Dr.

Chandler took to relieve stress and physical discomfort for her dogs were

consistent with the most fundamental principle of Animal-Assisted Therapy.


38

Like Dr. Abrams, Chandler describes disaster mental health counseling as

very different from traditional talk therapy. According to Dr. Chandler, disaster

relief counseling is briefer and focuses on calming people, helping them feel safe

and assisting them with their immediate needs.

Realities of Volunteering in a National Disaster

Alise Bartley, Ph.D. is a marriage and family therapist and adjunct

professor at the University of Akron in Ohio. According to Dr. Bartley, she did

not immediately feel a pressing need to help disaster victims following

Hurricane Katrina. She just assumed that residents and community leaders of the

affected areas would be able to handle the situation. Then Hurricane Rita hit,

pummeling the Gulf coast with a powerful storm surge that compounded the

devastation caused by Katrina. Rita spawned what's called a "tornado outbreak,"

i.e. the occurrence of multiple tornadoes on the same day in the same geographic

area. It was the media coverage of ongoing devastation, lack of organization, and

deplorable living conditions that made Bartley feel an urgent need to help that

she could not ignore.

Dr. Bartley was not registered as a Red Cross mental health volunteer

prior to Katrina. However, she and many other mental professionals were able to

become registered Red Cross volunteers through the American Association of

Marriage and Family Therapists and other professional associations. The need

for volunteers was so great that the Red Cross waived its standard training

requirement.


39

Katrina devastates the Ninth Ward of New Orleans

About six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and three weeks after Hurricane

Rita, Bartley received a call from the Red Cross that she was to "deploy"

immediately to the hurricane stricken area of Gulfport, Mississippi. Bartley

gives an account of her experiences in an article titled "The Realities of

Volunteering in a Natural Disaster" (2007).

According to Bartley, she quickly took care of the loose ends associated

with her responsibilities as a wife, mother, professor, clinical supervisor, and

psychotherapist starting out in private practice. She had never made a

commitment like this before and was extremely anxious going into it.


40

Flights into Gulfport were limited, so Bartley had to fly into Mobile,

Alabama, rent a car, and drive to Gulfport. Upon arriving in Mobile, Bartley

rented a car and was given directions to the Sea Bee Base in Gulfport,

Mississippi. She didn't realize that the accommodations would be so basic.

What!?! I would be staying in military barracks? I knew this had to be a

mistake. There had to be a hotel room available somewhere. Maybe it

would only be for one night. Therefore, as day turned to night, I found my

way to the base. Guards with large guns instructed me as to where to go. I

pulled up to a huge brick building ... My accommodations for the next two

weeks consisted of four large brick rooms that had housed as many as

1200 people ... After getting my bedding, which consisted of scratchy

sheets and an even scratchier blanket, I picked out a cot and began setting

up my things. (Bartley, 2007, pp. 6-7)

The next day, Bartley met her supervisor and was paired up with another

mental health worker, who was a psychologist from the East coast who

specialized in working with children. They loaded a van with supplies and set

off. Their instructions were to locate the most devastated areas and to stop when

they saw people. "We were to identify ourselves, let them tell their stories, hook

them up to community resources if necessary or available, offer them supplies,

and then be on our way" (p. 6).

The leader of another volunteer group asked Barley and her fellows to talk

to some families with children about what their children were experiencing.

Arriving at the site, we could not help but notice a large geometric white

tent strategically placed in the front parking lot of an abandoned strip

mall. Inside, volunteers were serving dinner and getting ready to watch

Monday Night Football. Several families were invited to sit in on the

discussion [of what their children were experiencing], but no one was

interested. Apparently, this was the residents’ opportunity to come


41

together as members of the community and to receive support from each

other. Watching football gave them a sense of hope and normalcy that was

missing from their lives. (p. 9)

When I read this vignette, I wondered if the person who requested that Bartley et

al. talk with the families about what their children were experiencing was

operating out of a preconceived notion that many counselors subscribe to.

According to this notion, people affected by disaster should be made to talk

about the trauma they are experiencing as soon as possible, whether they want to

talk to a counselor about this or not. This approach is not empirically supported

and ignores the realities of the situation. The families in question were caught up

in a disaster that was still unfolding and had immediate survival needs.

Bartley herself appears to have been more sensitive, judging from the way

she established rapport with the emaciated man who had four very bedraggled

dogs. Bartley's group had received a call from a neighbor who was concerned

that the man was not eating properly and not taking caring of himself. The

neighbor warned them that the man did not like people poking around in his

business, so the volunteers should be careful.

As we arrived, four of the dirtiest, matted-haired dogs I have ever seen

greeted us. These friendly dogs led us down a path through the grass to

their owner ... Ten people were outside drinking beer at 11 in the morning.

We met up with him and talked with him for a while focusing on his dogs

(italics added). He said he was fine but needed some dog food. We said

we did not have any but gave him the name of a rescue mission for

animals that might be able to help.

He said he had a colostomy performed during Hurricane Rita. His thin


42

body looked like it would blow over with a gust of wind but he appeared

clean. Since he only had three teeth, we gave him some liquid protein

drinks. His daughter, who also lived in this community, said we were the

first people he did not try to run off. We gave her our number and told her

to call if anyone needed anything. (p. 12)

I was struck by the fact that Bartley's group focused on the man's dogs

while they talked to him. This may have been a critical factor in establishing

rapport and persuading the man to accept help in the form of protein drinks. The

drinks were directly related to the man's medical condition and survival needs.

The interaction with the man and his dogs made me think of Chandler's

observation that evacuees at the Dallas Arena Shelter were only receptive to

talking with the counselors, and accepting needed services, when her therapy

dogs were present. If Bartley and the other mental health volunteers were

Caucasian and the emaciated man and his friends were people of color, race may

have been a factor in the reluctance to accept help from the volunteers who had

tried to make contact earlier. Bartley's focus on the man's dogs strikes me as the

approach of a skilled therapist and may well have formed the emotional bridge

that was needed.

Each Volunteer Had Their Own Breaking Point

On their way out of the devastated area, Bartley's group saw dump trucks

unloading debris from the storms. The piles of trash went on as far as the eye

could see. A member of the group who was still new to the shock of the

widespread destruction began to cry. She had never experienced people living in

such terrible conditions. When Bartley first arrived, she had a similar reaction as


43

her group drove through more and more debris as they neared the coastline.

Seeing so many survivors trying to clean up, Bartley had wanted to stop and

start helping immediately. Bartley remembers the frustration she felt when the

leader of her group, the experienced one, said no, not yet. According to Bartley,

her training as a mental health professional had not prepared her for this.

I became overwhelmed with the feeling of being so small and lacking

power. How was I supposed to deal with this. The agony of what had

happened to these people was too much. Finally, I cried. Later, in

retrospect, I realized that it was important that I was first flooded with the

destruction so that I would be able to focus on the people in the

community and their needs and not respond to my own issues. (pp. 6-7)

The more experienced mental health volunteers who Bartley had worked

with when she first arrived returned home. Bartley became the experienced one

who was teamed up with the new volunteers who didn't know the ropes. As the

leader of the group, Bartley put the neophytes through the same emotional

flooding experience that was put her through on her first day. Bartley observed

that each volunteer had their own breaking point. She gave the newbies some

time to process the feelings of loss and helplessness which overwhelmed them.

Then the group moved on.

Extending the Circle of Compassion

It was the famed humanitarian and Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer

who said, "Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man

will not himself find peace" (Sichel, 1998). When Bartley returned home to

Ohio, the pain of wishing she could do more to help was still strong. She gave


44

talks about her experience in Mississippi to church and community

organizations, some of whom made plans to go to the Gulfport/Biloxi area to

help. Bartley's church sent games to a center for families who had lost all their

material possessions. The school that Bartley's son attended raised money to

purchase Santa hats for a Christmas play being put on by school children in

Mississippi. Each hat was accompanied by a supportive letter from a student at

her son's school.

Expanding the Circle of Compassion

Like Lois Abrams and Cynthia Chandler, Alise Bartley found serving as a

mental health volunteer in disaster to be deeply meaningful. Bartley wrote:


45

I feel a great sense of honor to have had the opportunity to help those in

Mississippi. As one resident stated, “I may not remember your name, but I

will always remember your face and the help you gave me and my

family.” This is also true for me. I may not remember your name, but I

will always remember your face and your story and how my life has

changed because of your incredible spirit. (p. 16)

********************************

References for After Katrina

Abrams, L. (n.d.). Katrina, Rita, and I. Retrieved September 24, 2011 from

http://guidancefacilitators.com/katrina.html.

Bartley, A.G. (2007). Confronting the realities of volunteering for a national

disaster. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 29(1), 4-16.

Johnson, C. (August 31, 2006). Katrina's lost pets come home. Retrieved

January 22, 2014 from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/katrinas-lost-pets-come-

home.

Chandler, C.K. (2005). Animal assisted therapy in counseling. NY: Routledge.

Chandler, C.K. (March 26-30, 2008). Animal assisted therapy with Hurricane

Katrina survivors. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Counseling

Association, Honolulu, HI. Retrieved May 16, 2012 from

http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas08/Chandler.htm.

Chandler, C.K. (2012). Animal assisted therapy in counseling (2nd ed.). NY:

Routledge.

Eng, J. (September 23, 2012). Dog given up during New Orleans hurricane turns


46

up in NC. Retrieved October 14, 2013 from http://www.today.com/pets/dog-

given-during-new-orleans-hurricane-turns-nc-

1B6054245?franchiseSlug=petsmain.

Grimm, D. (Fall, 2013). Animals among the inmates. Bark Magazine, 52-55.

Halligan, K. (n.d.). Hurricane Katrina: The animals and the aftermath. Retrieved

January 14, 2014 from http://www.dochalligan.com/katrina/katrina.shtml.

Humane Society of the United States (June 10, 2013). Make a disaster plan for

your pets: How to keep safe in natural disasters or everyday emergencies.

Retrieved April 8, 2014 from

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/animal_rescue/tips/pets-

disaster.html#.U0XvT8d0G_s.

Hunt, M.G. , Al-Awadi, H., & Johnson, M. (2008). Psychological sequelae of

pet loss following Hurricane Katrina. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal

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