NEW ORLEANS — Three years after pet owners were reduced to tears while being forced to leave their dogs and cats in neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, emergency-response officials are taking extraordinary care to ensure animal safety during Hurricane Gustav.
At the New Orleans bus station, a designated pickup point for evacuees, a pet-registration center was set up. Dozens of white pet crates were stacked against the curb.
“We’re making sure the pets go where their owners go,” said Sandy Cochran, South Carolina state coordinator with United Animal Nations. “During Katrina, there was really no plan for what to do with pets.”
Before pet owners boarded a bus, they filled out paperwork about their animal and were given a paper bracelet with a code number, she said. That code was written on the traveling crate along with the names of the pet and owner.
The pets were loaded onto 18 trucks, which follow the buses. Every two hours, the drivers were to stop to check on the animals, which are fed, watered and kept cool.
A veterinarian was on standby to treat sick or injured animals, Cochran said. State officials said they requested about 150 trucks to help transport pets out of the city.
