Will someone adopt them? Pinellas organizations hope so, after taking in animals from a shelter Hurricane Charley left without power.
By JANETTE NEUWAHL
Published August 17, 2004
[Times photos: Carrie Pratt]
Emma, a calico cat from the Suncoast Humane Society Shelter in Englewood, plays Monday while living in a hallway at the Humane Society of North Pinellas shelter in Clearwater. Cages are stacked in a medical building. The animals were brought there as part of a disaster response program.
Murphy, a 2-year-old beagle, sticks his nose through the fence at the shelter on Monday.
CLEARWATER - Kathy the cat is living in the men's restroom. Emma the calico's cage is crammed next to the wall among a mosaic of plastic and wire cages.
It's crowded inside the Humane Society of North Pinellas shelter in Clearwater, and volunteers are trying to find extra space for 77 pets displaced by Hurricane Charley.
On Sunday, volunteers from the North Pinellas shelter, the Pinellas SPCA in Largo and Pet Pal of St. Petersburg drove down to the Suncoast Humane Society Shelter in Englewood and helped empty 158 animals from the facility, which had lost power.
Now Pinellas County organizations are looking for people to adopt them. Fast.
"We're a little overburdened now," said Rick Chaboudy, executive director of the Pinellas County Humane Society. "Any time you bring in that amount of animals that quickly, it's difficult, but we had no choice. Had that hurricane not made that turn, we'd be in the same condition they are down there - if not worse."
The North Pinellas Humane Society shelter gained 27 dogs and 50 cats. At the SPCA in Largo, executive director Connie Brooks said the shelter collected 12 dogs and 20 cats from Charlotte County. Chaboudy estimated that Pet Pal brought back about five dogs.
All of the Pinellas organizations had volunteers who were members of a national Humane Society program called Disaster Animal Response Team.
The program, which started after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, proves especially valuable in hurricane-prone Florida, said Anne Culver, director of disaster services for the national Humane Society of the United States. Local chapters of DART include mostly shelter employees and volunteers trained in animal distress relief efforts through a 25-hour course.
As Charlotte County residents surveyed the damage to their homes this weekend, officials from the national Humane Society flew to southwest Florida to help respond to animals' needs. They found one shelter with its roof blown off, and realized quickly that any nearby facilities for animals needed to be ready to take in the pets of residents who lost their homes, or stray animals hurt during the storm.
Debra Parsons-Drake, executive director of the Suncoast Humane Society in Charlotte County, said the shelter has to make space for animals who may still be hiding, but will crawl out from hunger in the next few days. Animal specialists learned that lesson during Hurricane Andrew, when three days after the storm, animals emerged from the rubble - many of them injured from debris - and in need of a home.
"Right now, animals are still hunkered down in deadly fear," Parsons-Drake said. "But animal control officers and disaster teams are out there, and now that we're on the proactive side, we're also getting slammed with people who have to make the heart-rending decision of what to do with their animals if they have no home."
The Suncoast shelter called Pinellas organizations and the Broward Humane Society to help empty the Englewood shelter so it would be available for hurricane-distressed animals. Suncoast could then take in animals after they arrived at the animal disaster relief tent city in Punta Gorda's Carmalita Park, said Culver. Along with local volunteers, the tent city "mass unit" has national Humane Society veterinarians trained in emergency animal relief.
"Pinellas County has such a strong volunteer base, they are close by, they are trained to do this type of thing and are willing to do it," said Culver. "They were lucky last Friday and we're really grateful they are able to do this."
Tampa Bay area animal facility officials do feel lucky that Charley's harrowing path skipped Pinellas. On Sunday, Chaboudy said volunteers from the three organizations formed a caravan to Charlotte County and stopped along the way to talk about what they might encounter.
While they were stopped along the road, a woman pulled her car over to take a picture of the volunteers to thank them for their work, Chaboudy said. She was on her way north to Sarasota County to get ice for her grandson and told the group about her experience with the hurricane. She said her husband even video-recorded his will because he didn't believe they would survive the storm.
"I don't think there was a dry eye in the house after that," said Chaboudy. "Talk about a pep talk."
Four hours after they arrived in Punta Gorda, Pinellas organizations helped take animals out of the Suncoast Humane Society shelter. Although their task saddened Suncoast employees who had grown attached to the animals, Humane Society employees were grateful for the help, said Parsons-Drake.
"The Pinellas agencies can walk on water in my book," said Parsons-Drake. "With the amount of help they provided us, they truly were a godsend."
Bay Area DART coordinator Pam Burns said volunteers are ready to head back to Charlotte County if they are needed.
"It's going to be a very long process, so if we're not called now, it's not to say that in three weeks or even a month, when people who are working down there now are tired they won't call us," said Burns. "They are going to need recruitments and extra help ... but at this point we're just waiting."
Staff writer Kelley Benham contributed to this report. Janette Neuwahl can be reached at jneuwahl@sptimes.com or 445-4163.
If you go
Pinellas County Humane Society, 3040 State Road 590, Clearwater, (727) 797-7722
SPCA of Pinellas County, 9099 130th Ave., Largo, (727) 586-3591
Pet Pal of St. Petersburg, 3933 Tyrone Blvd. N, St. Petersburg, (727) 576-4867
To donate to the Humane Society of the United States' Disaster Relief Fund call toll-free 1-888-259-5431 or donate online at www.hsus.org by clicking on the Hurricane Charley "Disaster Center" icon on the top right side of the screen.
