11/24/07: Thanksgiving Hope For Katrina’s Homeless

SpayMart is a 501c3 all-volunteer organization based in New Orleans and also has a facility in Picayune, MS, for (currently) 300 cats rescued after Katrina. Lynn Chiche, president, GREATLY needs extra hands to care for cats and appreciates ANY amount of time anyone can donate! Just one day is appreciated. Maybe you could drive over to help with feeding/watering, scooping litter boxes, administering meds? SpayMart encourages spay/neuter efforts in addition to adoptions.

1. Volunteer to assist with daily cat care and adoptions.


2. Volunteer For “Santa Claws Program” in December at Petsmart - Elmwood. Begins Dec. 1/2 and continues weekends of Dec. 8/9, Dec. 15/16. Three volunteers needed each weekend day, from 11:00am to 4:00pm One vol plays Santa, one is a photographer, and one prints photos. Must be 18 years or older and contract photographers not allowed. Petsmart provides everything except volunteers.


3. Donate heavy duty garbage bags and cat litter.


4. Help sponsor SpayMart’s veterinary bills.

Jeanette Althans, jalthans@chnola.org — Kathy Sweeney and I still have ongoing needs in Lakeview. We can use help with feeding, but our most important needs involve trapping, fostering, and adopting. Please visit www.lakeviewcats.org regularly.

There are several litters of kittens that need to be trapped and taken off the street, along with unaltered adults that need TNR. Kathy and I typically trap 4 - 6 cats each week. These cats are brought to ARNO for spay/neuter, and released the next day. However, we desperately need fosters and people willing to adopt kittens. In October we trapped three 5 week old kittens. They were little spitfires for the first few days. Kathy helped me tame them down, and they turned out so very sweet. They are in a foster home in Baton Rouge and are up for adoption through ARNO. We named them after streets in Lakeview: Fleur de Lis, Hammond, and Harrison.

There are several more litters that we need to trap and take off the street, and we are looking for foster and forever homes for these kittens. Also, there are several friendly "Katrina" cats left in Lakeview who deserve forever homes. They have been living on the street for over 2 years and crave human attention.

www.lakeviewcats.org/

FOSTER / ADOPT: Fosters/forever homes needed for following types of cats and kittens who still live in devastated areas...
- Friendly adult cats who survived Katrina and are still left on the streets (fosters needed while we search for owners).
- Adult cats who survived Katrina and are still very scared. These cats need a little extra attention until they adjust.
- Kittens of various ages (2 months to 8 months); some need extra handling until they adjust.

Many of the cats on the street were former pets and are now very scared. It is possible that some of the kitties can be re-socialized in a stable environment with steady human contact. Please help!

VIEW SOME OF LAKEVIEW CATS HERE: www.lakeviewcats.org/fosteradopt.html

Lakeview Cats Roaming was created for the cats still roaming in Lakeview since Hurricane Katrina. Kathy Sweeney and Jeanette Althans coordinate the feeding, trapping, and reunion efforts. The Remote Reunion Campaign, ARNO, Kinship Circle and others provide assistance with various items. Please visit our site for more information: www.lakeviewcats.org

Donations of cat food are greatly needed. Ideally, 20-lb or 40-lb bags of cat food. A small amount of kitten food would be useful too.

Denkai Animal Sanctuary is an organization committed to promoting healthy environments in which people and animals
interact and connect through applied, environmental, and educational programs to cultivate mental and physical health.

Augillard said, "I put my faith in the justice system, and it failed me. I know without a doubt that the dog in Texas is Jazz. I love my dog, and all I want is to bring Jazz home."

According to attorney Susan Philips, who represented Augillard in the case, the outcome was incomprehensible, given the uncontroverted and overwhelming evidence that Jazz is indeed Augillard's dog.

"A noted DNA expert, Dr. Joy Halverson, testified that, 'with scientific certainty, I can unequivocally say the DNA samples came from the same dog,'" Philips said. "At the outset of the case, we were confident that the court would return Jazz to Augillard. We thought that the quickest way to get Jazz home was to file suit in Texas, in Hays County, which is where the dog was being held. Because the judge limited the trial to four hours, we didn't have the opportunity to present our case. We were stunned by the judge's decision."

She added, "Since Jazz is now ten years old, it is imperative that we continue to pursue this case at all levels and hopefully reunite her with Augillard before it's too late."

Katrina Animal Reunion Team (KART) was founded by a small group of very experienced volunteers whose goal is to assist shelters and individuals still caring for Katrina rescues. Our members include some Gulf Coast residents who are in a position to go to addresses where a particular animal was found to locate possible owners. They talk to neighbors, post flyers, etc. They can also assess the situation to which a pet might return to and assist in verifying ownership. Transportation funds are still available.

Oral arguments have been set for December 3, at 9 AM at the Lafayette Courthouse located at 800 South Buchanan Avenue, in the courtroom of Judge Herman Clause, 15th District.

PLEASE ATTEND THE ORAL ARGUMENTS. Having 30-40 people makes a BIG difference to the judge as opposed to an empty courtroom. Plus, we need media. With a lot of people we will obtain it... Already, as a result of "word" about our lawsuit getting out, Caddo Parish, which also had a long history of horrendous animal control policies and administration, has told us in a letter from their parish attorney they do not want to end up getting sued in the same manner as Lafayette and they are immediately making as many changes as feasible and to give them "time."

To read the correspondences between us and the "disingenuous" responses we received from Lafayette pursuant to our Records Request go to: www.CompanionAnimalNetworkTV.org/Lafayette.html

To read our legal paperwork which will be argued in court go to:
www.companionanimalnetworktv.org/Lafayette%20Law%20Suit.html

DOWNLOAD FREE, HIGH RES FACT SHEETS:
www.kinshipcircle.org/fact_sheets/

• Over 50 high-resolution, 8.5 x 11" Fact Sheets for your advocacy materials
• Use entire Fact Sheet
• Or, crop out high-res photos + fact bites to make your own posters, flyers

Ms. Chandel and other volunteers from around the country teamed up with the MuttShack Foundation, an animal protection agency that operated one of the largest animal recovery outposts in the city, that would make dangerous forays in to the city in search of lost and abandoned animals. During one search and rescue mission, Ms. Chandel and her rescue partner traveled into Gentilly, a dangerous neighborhood especially hard hit by the levee breach, and where shootings were a common occurrence even after the storm — and stayed overnight in a resident's attic of an abandoned and nearly-destroyed home (were temperatures exceeded 100 degrees) — in order to locate and retrieve a traumatized cat.

Ms. Chandel eventually caught the cat, Violet, and returned her to her owner, who had previously evacuated to New York City, and where the former resident has decided to live permanently. Overall, Ms. Chandel gave aid and relief to dozens of stricken animals and showed great courage and determination in her efforts to help animals in distress.

"We would like to honor the thousands upon thousands of volunteers who risked their personal safety and spent their personal funds to assist our efforts in helping our city and state recover from our nation's worst natural disaster. Since it is impossible to give awards to each deserving individual, we can only pick a few to represent the many. We believe that Courtney's actions symbolize what thousands of others did — they helped us during our greatest time of need and they did it without expecting anything in return," says Jeff Dorson, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Louisiana, a charitable animal protection agency that operated the Safe House for Abused Animals in Algiers, a suburb of New Orleans, fifteen minutes from the Superdome.

The group's shelter was destroyed by Katrina's heavy rains and hurricane force winds, but the organization hopes to return to the city and reestablish many of its humane programs and services in the near future. Twenty-four hours before Katrina landed, the group evacuated to a barren four-acre plot of land in Tylertown, Mississippi, where they created an emergency evacuation center, which is still in operation.

When informed of binging nominated and then chosen to receive the prestigious award from the Humane Society, Ms. Chandel said, said that after experiencing the tremendous outpouring of support from all over the world and from other states after September 11, "Helping out Louisiana was a real privilege. To help animals is to help people, because people care about the welfare of animals."

Mr. Stringer also presented Ms. Chandel with a mounted "key" to the City of New Orleans. "We wanted to let Courtney and other animal rescuers know that our state will be forever indebted to them and that the door to our city shall remain open to them," says Dorson, explaining the significance of the second award. Mr. Stringer, not to be outdone by the officials from the Humane Society, also declared August 14, as "Courtney Chandel Day throughout the Borough of Manhattan." This is the first time, in modern times, that an animal rescuer has been honored with this type of city-wide proclamation.

The Humane Society of Louisiana has also created a Katrina Pet Memorial Committee, which is comprised of 20 individuals from around the country who are raising funds to create a commemorative statue to honor the lives of pets lost during Katrina. Ms. Chandel also serves on this committee. The committee has commissioned a life-size statue to be sculpted by Mr. Richard Chashoudian, a resident of Baton Rouge. The statue, known as the Katrina Pet Memorial Statue, will be a cat and dog cast in bronze and will symbolize the tens of thousands of animals that lost their lives during Katrina.

The statue will be formally presented to the New Orleans City Council on or around the 3rd anniversary of Katrina (August 29, 2008). A rally and reception for all animal responders who participated in the 2005 storm recovery will be held in conjunction with the unveiling of the statue.

For more information, contact Executive Director, Humane Society Of Louisiana, Jeff Dorson:
901-268-4432 or stopcruelty11@gmail.com

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