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Dear President Bush, Govenors Blanco and Barbour, Secretary Chertoff, Secretary Rumsfeld:

With human evacuations and aid underway, I implore the White House, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the states of Louisiana and Mississippi to immediately assist the Hurricane Katrina animal rescue effort.

Mr. President: Please authorize National Guardsmen and other responders under the command of the U.S. government to conduct animal rescue and relief missions.

Governors Blanco and Barbour: Please direct rescue boats, air-conditioned trucks, medical personnel and other available resources to help retrieve stranded pets and other animals.

Secretary Chertoff: Please order relief units and other responders under the command of the Department of Homeland Security to carry out animal rescue and relief missions.

Secretary Rumsfeld: Please mobilize more than 72,000 active and reserve component troops involved in hurricane operations to implement animal rescue and relief missions.

Sixty percent of American families have "pets" who are loved and cherished. How can responders and relief workers be so disconnected from the people they are supposed to help?

Ask the citizens of Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans. They departed before Katrina struck. Like most storm evacuees, they expected to return in several days.

Now their homes are flattened. Their farms, sheds and trees are tossed along highways and shorelines. Plaquemines Parish is nestled between levies. One barricades the Gulf Coast and another the Mississippi River. The eye of the storm hit Plaquemines with category-5 ferocity, destroying its protective levies.

Still, life perseveres. Dogs are marooned on rooftops. Hundreds more swarm Guardsmen, begging for food and water. Cats devour MRE's from kind soldiers. Bewildered horses are submerged in water. One Plaquemine's resident hired a helicopter to airlift her horses.

The domestic animals we call "pets" are coated in oil from smashed storage tanks. Millions of gallons of thick, black crude blanket the ground and river.

With each passing hour, another animal dies in Plaquemines Parish, New Orleans, and many Gulf Coast towns. They are emaciated, dehydrated and poisoned.

"We should not have to rely on the compassionate instincts of individual Guardsmen to save animals," said one rescuer with the Humane Society of the U.S. "We need the full commitment of the government."

I call upon authorities to act now. Tomorrow may be too late.

Thank you,