[Larksmom]

I just saw a blurb on the local news tonight about some of the resuced dogs and cats from the flooded areas on the east side of Missouri-near St. L and maybe even Il. What I was shocked to hear is that they were bringing these animals HERE [Kansas City area] and putting them up for adoption! It is great to save them but how about letting their people at least make an attempt to find their beloved pets first. I think this is horrible misguided and wrong.
Has anyone else heard anything about this? It was just about 30 seconds long not even a real story just a few shots of a big yellow lab in a crate and a nervous mewing cat.

[Kryswyn]

If they were just housing them there, while shelters in the devastated areas regroup that would be one thing (and a good thing) but I'm guessing these animals are NOT microchipped and possibly collarless so not immediately able to be returned to owners. Not to mention contacting homeless folks (or deceased) is difficult as even cell phones are buried in debris and cell towers are toast.

This is another reason to microchip your pets, even those inside kittehs who *never* go outside.

[Larksmom]

but I still think it is too soon to think of rehoming them. What happened during Katrina? I know HSUSA got involved and it was a big mess, but did they TRY to find the owners? I am sure many pets had to be rehomed but, I don't know I just feel so sorry for the people who have lost everything and do not have any idea what has happened to Rover or Fluffy.

[Kryswyn]

Hopefully, they will publicize the relocation of the dogs and make the phone numbers/website available in the disaster zones so survivors will know where to call. But I have to think some people will be grateful that their pets are being rehomed because they don't have shelter for themselves or the means to take care of them at the moment.

[bdj]

I can't speak to what happened during Katrina, but after the flooding in NC following Hurricane Floyd (1999), the NC State Vet School set up a field hospital in Raleigh. Every dog (I honestly don't remember about any cats) was microchipped, vaccinated, and photographed as it arrived at the field hospital. The photos were then posted online and also made into paper albums that were copied and distributed to human shelters (and possibly also vet hospitals and animal shelters) in the flood zone, so that people who had had to leave their animals behind could flip through and ID/claim their pets. I do recall that several families were reunited with their pets, and that there were some dogs that were identified, but whose owners couldn't take them back, so they allowed the dogs to be rehomed.

All of the dogs had to be held for a while in quarantine, since vaccination histories were (obviously) unknown and it took about a month and a half before they started releasing pets to new homes, so there was some time for people to try to locate their pets.