I took this photo today while waiting to begin volunteer work as a photographer of lost animals. I'm unsure why this photo appears so fuzzy. The arena shown in the photo is one on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called the Parker Colliseum. Ordinarily it is used for showing off livestock, but it and other nearby buildings are being used to shelter 1,281 dogs, cats, and birds. Various DVMs walking around told me that 90 percent of the animals have a known owner who came from New Orleans and is staying at a hotel or some other location in Baton Rouge that does not allow pets to accompany guests. The other ten percent are animals that have been recovered by helicopter and other rescue methods from areas in and around New Orleans that are flooded from the recent Katrina levee-breaks.
I've gotten the impression that organizers of this emergency shelter are in a real struggle, pitting limited resources against excessive need. Another nearby shelter, in Gonzales (around 25 miles southeast of this one) recently closed to additional animals because they had too many.
Two reporters from North Carolina today told me that their website (www.wral.com) will tomorrow (12-Sep-2005) have their report about this shelter and other similar one's in Louisiana. |
