Katrina at 20
20 heroic tales of people helping animals
as told to Sandra Sarr, LSU Vet Med strategic communications
Neil Henderson, DVM (LSU 1995), owner, Pine Ridge Veterinary Center
The Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La., was used to house rescued animals.
“When Katrina hit, the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association sent out a request for help from veterinarians. I got to the Lamar Dixon Center on Day Five after Katrina hit. St. Bernard Parish was where I spent most of my time helping. It was literally destroyed. One day, while we were making our rounds, a man came running up to me and said that he just remembered that while the storm was coming through, he was on the third story of a building looking out of the window when he noticed a dog swimming around frantically with nowhere to go. He opened a window for it with the hope that it would swim inside the building to safety. Seven or eight days later, with the temperature well into the upper 90s, the man came up to me and asked me to go into the building to see if I could find the dog. I did not have much hope but went anyway. There, on the third floor of the building, I found the dog, a boxer, alive. She was in surprisingly good shape. The man was ecstatic to see the dog and could not believe that it made it inside the building to safety. I stayed for five days helping animals, and my late father (Dr. Robert Henderson, LSU Vet Med Class of 1977) came after that for five more days.”