RedRover provides emergency sheltering for pets displaced by Hurricane Isaac

August 31, 2012 – California-based RedRover (www.redrover.org) has sent trained emergency sheltering volunteers from across several Gulf states to care for animal victims of Hurricane Isaac. These animals are pets rescued from the flooding or brought to the emergency shelter upon evacuation with their families.

RedRover Responders volunteers will provide sheltering assistance for more than 200 animals who were displaced by the storm and are now residing at a temporary shelter. RedRover has deployed five volunteers to the emergency sheltering operation, traveling from Texas, Mississippi and Florida to help the animals.

Read the full press release >>

Hurricane Isaac Pet Shelters and Resources

RedRover Responders volunteers are on their way to Louisiana to to provide animal emergency sheltering assistance for animals displaced by Hurricane Isaac.

We have compiled a list of currently available emergency shelters and resources. Please contact the shelters directly for more information about what they can provide, their available space, and what pet owners need to do or bring. Read more >>

Remembering Hurricane Katrina

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi – the largest and most costly natural disaster to hit the United States. Katrina touched off RedRover's (known then as United Animal Nations) largest, longest and most arduous animal rescue and relief effort ever. In its emergency response to both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, RedRover's team of more than 400 volunteers, including 15 veterinarians, from 40 states and Canada cared for and rescued 2,100 animals in 6 locations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Hundreds more people made donations that enabled us to purchase needed supplies, equipment and medicine, and to support animal agencies that were decimated by the storm.

RedRover's 2-month-long Hurricane Katrina response ended on October 22, as staff and a handful of volunteers closed the emergency shelter in Monroe, Louisiana, where they had been caring for more than 200 dogs rescued from New Orleans. More than four dozen dogs were reunited with their owners, and those who weren't reclaimed were transferred to long-term foster homes. RedRover also disbursed $255,000 in hurricane relief grants to bring additional help to animal victims and the people who care for them.

Now, seven years later, our thoughts are with those who face impact from Tropical Storm Isaac. Families threatened by the storm are encouraged to bring pets along when they evacuate. Read our press release for pet disaster preparedness tips.

REMEMBERING HURRICANE KATRINA: 

New Orleans: Water Rescue Operation
An exhausted and starving puppy, finally safe in the care of rescuers. Photo courtesy of Stewart Cook, IFAW
RedRover, IFAW and Code 3 Associates have worked together to rescue hundreds of animals from the flood-ravaged streets and homes of New Orleans. Photo courtesy of Stewart Cook, IFAW
Jackson, Mississippi: RedRover Temporary Shelter
Reno-based volunteer Jane Hollingsworth "suits up" every day to take care of five puppies with ringworm. Jane took a month off to help the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
Billy Mac, and evacuee from Mendenhall, MS, spends quality playtime with his dog, Nikki. RedRover Responders volunteers describe him as a "very doting, very grateful" owner. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
As a welcome rain falls, veterinarian Sophie Grundy talks to a young evacuee and her baby sister. The family has two Siberian huskies staying at the shelter. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
Livia McRee, a newly-trained RedRover Responders volunteer from Palo Alto, California, enjoys taking a walk with some smaller residents of the Jackson shelter. Livia was rarely caught without her wide-brimmed hat. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
Thanks to generous donations from individuals and businesses, the RedRover shelters have all the supplies they need. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
Monroe, Louisiana: RedRover Temporary Shelter
Angel was brought to the Monroe shelter after spending three weeks in the New Orleans floodwaters. Here, Virginia-based RedRover Responders volunteer Linda Barber gives Angel some much-deserved attention. Photo by Anne Chadwick Williams
Barbara Jones, DVM, is spending 13 days in Monroe to help provide medical care for the animals displaced by the hurricane. Jones' trip was sponsored by the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.
In the wee hours of the morning on September 20, 2005, RedRover Responders volunteers unloaded 134 dogs who were tranferred from the main staging area in Gonzales, Louisiana. One dog, a yellow Lab named Toby, was reunited with his family later that day.

Take your pets with you when you evacuate. Share our pet disaster preparedness tips on Facebook >>

What an empty puppy mill looks like

Let's just get right to the point:

This is where the rusty cages used to be, stacked two high, with about three dogs in each cage. In just a few days, the dogs' lives have changed forever. This empty room represents freedom for the dogs who used to face living all their days, weeks, months and years here.

The Humane Society of Richland County did an impressive job leading this emergency response, diverting resources from their own shelter to ensure that operations at the emergency shelter ran smoothly. In a situation like this, especially given that we were sheltering on-site, it was essential that the animals are moved out as quickly as possible. Given that many of the dogs are ill or injured and will need rehabilitation before they can be adopted, the best option for the animals was to transfer them to groups who could handle their special needs and take the time needed to find each of them the right home. The Humane Society of the United States played a key role on the ground and remotely to coordinate lightning-fast placement of the dogs into approved rescue groups, and together with PetSmart Charities, they are helping to fund the dogs' ongoing veterinary care to mitigate the burden on the receiving organizations.

Please visit the websites below of the organizations who received these dogs. Please consider adopting any of the animals they have available, as they are all deserving of loving homes.

CHA Animal Shelter

Cincinnati SPCA

Cleveland Animal Protective League

Friendship Animal Protective League of Lorain County

Humane Society of Greater Dayton

The Humane Society of Richland County

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation

Ohio Pet Placement Foundation, Inc

Public Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) of Ohio

Shar Pei Savers

Star-Mar Rescue

Toledo Area Humane Society

Washington Animal Rescue League

WolfSpirit's Toy Breed Puppy Mill Rescue

RedRover is so honored to have been able to play a role in emptying this room and forever changing the lives of more than 250 animals. 

From No Hope to a Bright Future

Just days ago, nearly 300 dogs were in a building in the middle of cornfields. They were living their lives in rusty wire cages stacked two cages high, three dogs to a cage. They had no hope of anything changing for them.

How quickly the world has changed for these dogs! An army of people have descended upon them to give them clean water, clean food, clean air to breathe... And they're getting veterinary care and attention. But most importantly, the dogs will leave, bound for a bright future in homes with people who will care about them and treasure them.

RedRover Responders volunteers arrived on site this morning and hit the ground running. There was no time for an extended briefing. Volunteers jumped right in and began caring for the dogs, and one by one, gently taking them from the cages where they have spent most of their lives to get vet checks and treatments. Many of the dogs have heart-breaking eye conditions, skin infections, and other illnesses and injuries commonly encountered in puppy mill and hoarding situations.

Volunteer Katie works alongside a community volunteer to get the dogs' paperwork ready so they can go to approved rescue groups.

The best part was that nearly as fast as the volunteers could get the dogs tagged and their paperwork readied, they were going out the door to the wonderful approved placement groups that are taking them to continue their rehabilitation and find their forever homes. By 1 p.m., 76 dogs had already left the buildings.

This beautiful Shar-pei poses for a media camera on her way out to a rescue group.

By the end of the day, there were only 94 dogs left! Out of an operation that started with 240 Chihuahuas, 174 have made it out; and out of the original 40 Shar-pei, 12 are on their way to better lives. The remaining animals will have similarly bright futures as other groups come to pick them up over the next few days.

We are so grateful to have the opportunity to serve these dogs and this community. Volunteers from the community worked long and hard as soon as word got out that there were animals in need and before RedRover arrived, and their efforts are a large reason of why this first day of RedRover's deployment was so fruitful in moving animals off the property and onto better lives. Thank you to The Humane Society of Richland County for all their support and coordination, and to The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) for their tremendous effort to provide vital veterinary care and placement coordination. The HSUS and PetSmart Charities are funding the medical care for these dogs to alleviate the burden on the rescue groups and shelters that are taking them.

For those interested in adopting or fostering these dogs, some of the groups who received animals are listed below:

• CHA Animal Shelter
• Humane Society of Greater Dayton
• Cleveland Animal Protective League
• WolfSpirit's Toy Breed Puppy Mill Rescue
• Friendship Animal Protective League of Lorain County
• Star-Mar Rescue
• Toledo Area Humane Society

Please keep in mind that all these groups had animals in need of foster/adoption before this emergency happened, so please consider helping one of those animals, too. 

As always, we are in awe of the RedRover Responders volunteers who dropped everything in their lives to travel to this deployment and give so much of themselves to the animals and to this community. Thank you also to the RedRover donors and supporters who make this effort possible.

Hundreds of dogs surrendered by owner on deathbed

August 16, 2012 – RedRover, a California-based nonprofit organization, is deploying volunteers from 9 states and Canada to care for 240 Chihuahuas and 40 Shar-Peis in Richland County, Ohio. The dogs’ owner and local breeder, Edith Buchko, is in failing health and surrendered custody of the dogs to the Humane Society of Richland County. Buchko’s son alerted RedRover of the dogs’ situation and the need for emergency care.

Read the full press release >>