Katrina at 20

20 heroic tales of people helping animals 

as told to Sandra Sarr, LSU Vet Med strategic communications

Ginger Guttner, LSU Vet Med communications

“On August 29, 2005, many in south Louisiana breathed a sigh of relief because at first it seemed that south Louisiana and, specifically, New Orleans, had been spared. Then we began to learn about levees breaking and flooding in New Orleans. Veterinarians reached out to LSU Vet Med asking if they could transport patients to LSU to board them on campus until the situation in New Orleans could be evaluated. Faculty and staff from LSU Vet Med, working with the Louisiana State Animal Response Team, set up a temporary animal shelter in the LSU AgCenter John M. Parker Coliseum. Within 48 hours, the shelter had taken in close to 500 animals. Never having set up what was essentially a pop-up animal shelter on campus before, it took about a week to get systems in place to catalog animals as they were brought in, microchip them or note a microchip if they already had one, evaluate them medically, and ensure that we had contact information for the owners.

LSU Vet Med also had volunteer students, staff, and faculty at another animal shelter at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La. This shelter had animal welfare groups from across the country and was set up for animals rescued from the New Orleans area, as opposed to the shelter on the LSU campus, which was for animals dropped off by owners as they evacuated areas affected by Katrina. LSU Vet Med's Equine Health Studies Program set up a 1-800 number for people to request hay and sent teams out to affected areas to rescue horses and other animals.

Approximately 10,000 animals were cared for at these shelters, with 2,000 coming through the LSU campus. Of those, all but 200 from the LSU shelter were picked up by their owners before the shelter closed 45 days after it opened. Those animals were sent to shelters in Vermont with the understanding that they would be fostered by families in that area and could be returned to their owners whenever they called to claim them.

I arrived at the shelter a few days after the storm hit the coast to help manage media relations for the shelter. I was responsible for sending out news releases letting people know that we needed volunteers and donations of money and supplies, as well as responding to media requests for interviews. While the shelter was operating, I escorted dozens of reporters from around the world through the facility. It had areas for intake, medical triage, volunteers, supplies, and organization. Cats were kept in cages in the corridor surrounding the rodeo arena, while dogs were kept in cages on outdoor carpets on the arena floor. The corridors and meeting rooms were air conditioned, while the arena floor was not. 

We met as a team at least three times each day to go over logistics and operations. Each area reported so we all were kept informed on volunteer training and scheduling, supplies (inventory and items needed), medical issues and needs, current shelter numbers, and media visits.

In the first few days after Katrina, I would get to my office before 8 a.m. to check email and voicemail. As this was 2005 (one year before the first iPhone), I had to go to my office to check email and write news releases. I then went to the shelter for the morning meeting and then walked through the shelter to familiarize myself with things before greeting and escorting media. The afternoon was a repeat of the morning. This was my routine for 16 days, including weekends, before I was able to keep this schedule from Monday through Friday until the shelter closed. After Katrina, our LSU Vet Med experts were busy from sunrise to past sunset caring for animals, so it was up to me to answer most media questions. It was a life-changing experience, both personally and professionally.”