Hands On Help Opportunities for Pets Stranded by Fire, Hurricanes

Hands On Help Opportunities
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FOR HURRICANE HARVEY. August 28, 2017. Initially the New Orleans Times Picayune recommends money is more useful than donations of things. However, there is need for boats, clothing, leashes for pets and more in Texas.
UPDATE 8/30/17: As Hurricane Harvey hits Lousiana, more help is needed. Physical help and donations of both money and useful items listed at Cesar's Way. To check where and what you can do for pets in Houston, please check also this page on our site. You will also see links for the Humane Society and for SPCA to keep track of how you can help.
For humans suffering from the effects of the fires, counseling is available in Southern California area. The National Council of Jewish Women-LA has specially trained volunteers to help. Call Free Counseling Talkline at 877-655-3807. To volunteer for training or to help with one of their community service programs, call 323-651-2930.

NOV. 2009, FIRE RESCUE FOR ANIMALS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: The ASPCA is asking veterinary clinics with spare beds to contact the association at information@spcala.com. If you are a veterinarian, or know one in the southern California area, please get in touch with the SPCALA to help house animals displaced by raging fires across the region.
NOV. 2009, Hands-on help needed for FIRE-STRANDED PETS BY New Leash on LIfe. Stranded and evacuated pets need care, and the New Leash folks need your help at its facility in Newhall. Contact (661) 255-0097.

PLEASE NOTE: The Humane Society of the U.S. and SPCALA routinely send special teams to disaster sites to aid animals, and both are doing so in the fire regions in Southern California. To go to an actual disaster site for the Humane Society or ASPCA, you must take special training. If you are interested in receiving information on training to be a member of the Humane Society Disaster Animal Rescue Teams (DART), please send an email to disaster@hsus.org with "DART Training Information" in the subject line. For ASPCA, contact your local organization. What you can do right now to help animals affected by fire in Southern California's situation is send a contribution, as monies are needed for equipment, food, transportation, etc. To read more about what the HSUS is doing, read here.
FOR PETS' HUMANS AFFECTED BY THE FIRES, counseling is available in Southern California area. The National Council of Jewish Women-LA has specially trained volunteers to help. Call Free Counseling Talkline at 877-655-3807. To volunteer for training or to help with one of their community service programs, call 323-651-2930. Clothing is also needed. For "lightly used" clothing, Donors can call 323-655-3111. IF you wish to donate money for humans, NCJWLA suggests contacting the Red Cross.
MEET AND GREET RESCUED DISASTER VICTIM PETS/Become a Foster Parent. Check your local rescue groups to see when they are holding new adoption days. They need help preparing and taking care of pets during these events, and you can help make room for displaced pets by adopting or fostering little bundles of love that need good homes. Specific groups based in the Los Angeles area are listed below -- they also have traveled to disaster areas outside L.A.:
SEPT. '06 and OCT. '07: KEEP CHECKING YOUR LOCAL SPCA'S, HUMANE SOCIETY AND RESCUE GROUPS. ADOPTION DAYS ARE STILL BEING HELD TO OPEN UP SPACE FOR RESCUING DISASTER PET VICTIMS.
DEC. 11, '06, still true Oct. 07: INFO ON PERMANENT HOME ADOPTION FEST IN L.A. -- HELP CALIFORNIA RESCUE GROUPS FIND HOMES FOR FURRY LOVES RESCUED FROM THE GULF. SHELTERS THERE AND HERE ARE FULL, AND MORE PETS NEED HOMES EVERY DAY. YOUR ADOPTION WILL NOT ONLY BRING YOU AND PETS YOU TAKE HOME REAL JOY, IT WILL HELP PROVIDE SPACE TO RESCUE MORE WONDERFUL BUNDLES OF LOVE. The link below was for a wonderful event last year. But check to see what's happening this year!

UPDATE ON SUPER ADOPTION DEC. 12, 2005: Very heartwarming time as one doggie, for example, came up to my chest for a hug. See story, right, for more. Many amazing dogs and cats found new loving parents. But more still need homes to make room so that the terrific rescue organizations can bring more pets up from the Gulf, and provide more room there to help more local pets who have been living such difficult lives in the wake of the horrible hurricanes. You can help: : Some of the places in L.A. you can contact to adopt a pet today:

URGENT UPDATE NOV. 11, 2006: Despite earlier cries there are enough people down here, don't come, help is urgently needed in New Orleans. Stranded pets are all over town, still, and untrained helpers as well as trained vets, vet techs are needed desperately. Find out more. Or register to help direct at www.animalrescueneworleans.com.

UPDATE NOV. 11, 2006: The Shreveport, LA animal shelter is overwhelmed as are many others. They need volunteers, animal shampoo, and Advantage or similar. The animals must be washed after being in all that filth. If you can go, or send these items, you can direct them to Annette, Caddo Parish Animal Services 1500 Monty, Shreveport, LA 71007. Or you can drop these supplies at the mailroom, or send them to Rolinda Baker at LA Trade Tech College, 400 W. Washington, Los Angeles, CA 90015, She will forward whatever items you cannot forward yourself to Annette at the Caddo Parish Animal Services at her own expense. Rolinda has been to New Orleans -- reports from personal experience how urgent the need is for volunteers.

Can you join a group who are helping pets find their humans? This group is organized to do just that via the internet. For more info: You may join here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stealthvolunteers3/
This will give you an idea what they are doing:
http://www.KatrinaSanAntonio.com.

For others of you in Los Angeles who have goods or time to donate, the L.A. SPCA is asking for items and financial support to help them in bringing refugee pets here. Check their site for details, www.spcala.com (this is correct -- ".com" is address). UPDATE SEPT. 23, 2006: SPCALA has all the fosters it needs for now. You can still register for volunteering in other ways. Please call 323-730-5300 ext. 300.
FOR HANDS-ON HELPING OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR PART OF THE COUNTRY, CHECK YOUR LOCAL PET RESCUE ORGANIZATIONS. See whether they have taken in displaced pets, or are sending rescue teams to the fire-affected areas.

In L.A., at Katrina Super Adoption, from Pawprints volunteer Lisa Hough:

The most heart touching story I heard was of the woman who had lost her fiancé the month prior. They were going to adopt a dog together. She came Sunday, alone, to adopt the dog they had been looking for. When she saw Grady, a large, older, Australian mix of some kind, and started to pet him, she burst into tears. Grady was her dog. She knew it and he knew it. she went outside and cried for 30 minutes or more before she could come in and fill out the paperwork.

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