"I can fit both the cats and the dogs in there safely," she said. Hester, who was a cat person before Katrina, now has three dogs, including Chaz. Now together for ten years, and she says he's a loving dog who still gets terrified during thunderstorms. "Gradually it came to me that his real family had found him, and it was myself," Hester said. The shelter was only getting more crowded, and some animals had to be euthanized. Once Hester knew he wasn't going to be claimed or adopted, she had to make a decision. This could save not only the lives of pets, but people too - about 44% of the 100,000 who did not evacuate stayed because they didn't want to leave their pets behind, according to a report by the Fritz Institute.Ĭhaz's owner never came to claim him. In 2006, the Senate passed the the Pet Evacuation & Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, which authorizes FEMA to rescue, shelter and care for people with pets and service animals. The packs of dogs running through New Orleans after the storm, and the news reports of heartbroken owners searching for their animals, garnered national attention. If they had become too wild, like Chaz, they went into a special area, called the "rehab tent." It's estimated 15,000 pets were rescued.īut nearly 90,000 New Orleans-area pets have never been accounted for, and some reports estimate that 600,000 animals died or were left without shelter as a result of the hurricane. Volunteers took rowboats to the flooded streets, picking dogs off the roofs and cats out of the water. Those evacuated were told they couldn't bring their pets.Īfter the storm, the New Orleans SPCA embarked on the largest animal rescue operation ever seen in the U.S. No one was sure where Chaz had come from, but he'd been found in one of the most flooded neighborhoods.Ībout 1.2 million people were evacuated from the New Orleans region before the hurricane hit. Hester kept hoping his real family would come back for him. "Īs time wore on, the dogs around Chaz were adopted, but he was continually passed over because he still seemed too aggressive. " just doing everything they possibly could to make the animals comfortable and to help them get over the stress.
"I remember just being amazed at the commitment and dedication of the staff and the volunteers that were there around the clock," said Ana Zorrilla, CEO of the New Orleans SPCA.
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