Mail from the Humane Society

[Mairead]

"It's truly a race against the clock. Our teams are working
feverishly to rescue as many animals as possible and get them
out of the watery cesspool left behind by Hurricane Katrina."

-HSUS President & CEO
Wayne Pacelle

Dear Mairead,

After initially being blocked from entering the most devastated
areas in Louisiana and Mississippi, HSUS Disaster Animal
Response Teams (DART) have been working around the clock to help
save stranded and sick animals.

What we are finding is truly heartbreaking -- animals trapped in
flooded houses, caregivers wandering the streets desperately
searching for their beloved pets, and nearly destroyed animal
shelters where the surviving animals have spent days keeping
their heads above water in their cages.

But this is why we are here and why we are counting on our
supporters to help spread the word about our disaster efforts on
the Gulf Coast.

Block after block, our teams are entering homes and apartments,
sometimes forced to break into them, searching for stranded
animals. Yesterday in Mississippi, one of our DART teams rescued
a dog who had been washed into someone's attic; the storm surge
had stranded the animal. The woman who owned the house was
elderly; she had slipped some food and water into the attic for
the dog, but hadn't been able to go upstairs to carry him out.

We are finding and rescuing more animals as each hour passes -
more than a thousand so far - but with many more thousands
needing our help. In the past two days, we've focused on these
activities:

:: Marshalling all of our resources to provide relief for these
animals. We have 125 people and 39 support vehicles in
Louisiana, and more than 10 emergency personnel and 17 support
vehicles in Mississippi. The call is out for many more rescuers
to converge on these two states before it is too late. (emph. added)

:: Calling on ALL federal, state, and local responding agencies
to help provide animal rescue assistance immediately. Even
though we've been able to put hundreds of people in the field,
we worry they may not be enough.

:: Logging thousands of telephone calls through our HSUS call
center, as well as responding to thousands of emails. Staff
members in every section at headquarters dropped their normal
duties to assist in the response to Katrina, searching for
boats, trucks, crates, carriers, supplies, food, and other
essential items for transport and operations in the impact zones
of Louisiana and Mississippi.

:: Establishing of our online Disaster Center at www.hsus.org
featuring critical updates on our relief efforts, video and
slideshow footage, and ways that individuals can help us save
even more animals affected by Katrina. We're encouraging all our
supporters to visit the website often and take a moment to let
others know about our emergency response

In the days ahead, we will be expanding our large-scale rescue
of the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. In light of the
devastation we have witnessed, our rescue efforts cannot come
fast enough. I want to personally thank you for your recent
donation to help our disaster relief teams and I hope you'll
take a brief moment to tell a friend about our efforts

Sincerely,

Laura Bevan
Incident Commander
HSUS National Disaster Animal Response Team
Jackson, Mississippi

P.S. Your additional support will help us secure even more vital
resources and emergency personnel so crucial to our work in
Louisiana and Mississippi. If you are able, please
make an additional gift.

P.P.S. To help us raise the funds we desperately need to rescue
animals in the disaster area, please consider placing an HSUS
disaster relief banner on your blog or website if you have one.
Please click here to download a banner now:
http://hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/hurricane_katrina_donation_banners.html

********************************************

[LiberalinNC]

1. Made a donation!

[shireen]

2. cannot contact NO Mayor

For those of you who have tried to contact the NO mayor thru the PETA website -- that link will not accept email to the mayor.

But please contact the FEMA head about rescuing animals. www.peta.org