9/26/05—LAMAR DIXON UPDATE

Apparently, staging areas in Gonzales, LA (Lamar-Dixon) and Hattiesburg, MS are winding down with plans to foster animals or send them to existing shelters in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Please read messages below carefully. There is no precise date as to when these shelters will stop accepting volunteers, however this may begin to occur in early October. If you intend to volunteer at Lamar-Dixon or Hattiiesburg, you ought to leave very soon:

From HSUS Volunteer Boards:
“By 10/5 we should be operating with a just a limited number of shelter and veterinary staff to process and care for any remaining rescued animals.  Of course, the nature of disaster response work is always unpredictable and things frequently do not go as planned, so we may continue to need full staffing for a longer time period than expected.”

NOTE: Animal Rescue Foundation/Kinship Circle are tracking area shelters
that absorb Katrina/Rita rescues. As rescue efforts slowly wind down, we
will provide contact information for area shelters asking for volunteers
and/or foster/adopt.

Brenda Shoss, Kinship Circle
Julia Fischer, Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF)

——- Original Message ——-
From: Kate Danaher <katedanaher@animalearthhuman.org>  

I JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH JANE GARRISON.  BACK WHEN THEY FIRST SET THE LAMAR DIXON EMERGENCY SHELTER UP HSUS WAS GIVEN A DEADLINE TO BE OUT BY SEPTEMBER 30TH.  THEY ARE TRYING TO GET AN EXTENSION DUE TO THE DELAYS THEY EXPERIENCED WITH RITA.

JANE URGES YOU ALL TO NOT DELAY YOUR PLANS BUT TO GET DOWN THERE AS SOON AS YOU CAN TO HELP DROP FOOD AND WATER AND RESCUE.  SHE IS THRILLED WITH THE RESPONSE SHE IS GETTING (45 TWO-PERSON TEAMS WENT OUT THIS MORNING) AND IS SO SORRY THAT ANYONE IS BEING TREATED UNKINDLY UPON THEIR ARRIVALS.  THANKS TO PERSEVERING VOLUNTEERS ANIMALS CONTINUE TO BE PULLED FROM HOMES ALIVE.

DUE TO REPEATED REPORTS OF PEOPLE BEING TREATED INAPPROPRIATELY AT VOLUNTEER CHECK-IN, JANE RECOMMENDS THAT YOU NOT CHECK IN AT THE VOLUNTEER DESK AT BARN 5 AND THAT YOU REPORT DIRECTLY TO HER AT 5:30AMOUTSIDE THE “PROWLER” RV ON THE FAR SIDE OF BARNS 1 & 2. (THE VOLUNTEER FOOD TENT WAS MOVED WHEN THEY WERE HUNKERING DOWN FOR RITA.)

GODSPEED!

KATE DANAHER SAN RAFAEL, CA 415-459-1149

From: RAVS Disaster Response
Organization: Rural Area Vet Services
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005

HSUS/RAVS Disaster Response Schedule Update 9/25/05

If you are receiving this message you are currently scheduled as a disaster response volunteer with HSUS/RAVS in either Mississippi or Louisiana sometime after or including 10/5/05.

The word today is that we will be aiming to demobilize both the Lamar-Dixon facility and the Hattiesburg, MS facility within the next 1-2 weeks, moving all of the remaining animals to foster/adoption at various shelters around the country.  As this occurs our volunteer needs will begin to decrease.  By 10/5 we should be operating with a just a limited number of shelter and veterinary staff to process and care for any remaining rescued animals.  Of course, the nature of disaster response work is always unpredictable and things frequently do not go as planned, so we may continue to need full staffing for a longer time period than expected.

What all of this means is that those of you scheduled to deploy after 10/8 should delay finalizing travel plans for the next week or so until we know more.  If you are making flight plans, I would recommend purchasing refundable tickets as it is difficult to predict how conditions will develop.

We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but if there is one constant in this work it is change .  . I will be sending out email updates when I hear of any updates/changes to this plan.

THANK YOU for your flexibility and willingness to help.    –Windi