Archive: Around Town

Two local women spent five days driving to New Orleans and back on a mission of mercy this week.
Lezlie Kennedy, a receptionist at Meadowridge Veterinary Hospital in Lansing, and Sarah Reynolds, of Briar Patch Veterinary Hospital in Ithaca, drove a rental truck to New Orleans Saturday (11/12) and got back five days later at 3 am with 28 dogs and 14 cats.

They took a load of toiletries, clothes and household items to some of the tent cities where homeless hurricane victims still live. They saw the devastation first hand, and stayed with a woman who had set up their contacts with a high kill dog shelter in Saint John's Parrish and Spay Mart, an association in New Orleans that handles cats.

After picking up the dogs and cats they drove to the Best Friends Sanctuary in Mississippi, a no-kill shelter, where they picked up five cats and a dog. Originally they were going to get more dogs, but they were encouraged to get as many as possible from high-kill shelters to save them from death. With no place to stay, the women slept in the truck with the animals. "All in all these guys traveled pretty well," says Sharon Garland, who organized the effort. "And it was a lot of work for Sarah and Lezlie." Ms. Garland is a veterinary technician and hospital manager who has worked at Meadowridge for five months, and has been in the pet care profession for about 30 years.

Chris Armao and Sharon Garland examine Noki. They discover he was neutered before he came to Lansing, but tested positive for heart worm, a problem many of the dogs have.

All the animals are being examined and vaccinated if they haven't been already. Meadowridge Veterinarian Bridget Barry, who was part of a Veterinary Medical Assistant Team (VMAT) that was deployed to the Gulf Coast in late August, was ready to examine and prepare the animals 3 am when they arrived. Veterinarian Chris Armao, of Veterinary Care of Ithaca, spent her day off on Thursday helping to examine and vaccinate the dogs.

Among the dogs are 3 litters of puppies. One litter of eight six-week-old puppies came with the mother. All the puppies were scheduled to go to foster homes the day they arrived, after being treated for heart worm so that they won't infect other animals.

Fostered animals will be listed on Petfinder until the end of the year to give owners a chance to claim their pets. Meanwhile they'll be staying with dog and cat lovers who want to open their homes to them. Many of the dogs found foster homes the first day, while volunteers were looking for more to house the rest.

In addition five cats and a dog will go to the Tompkins County SPCA where they will be made available for adoption, but if they require medical treatment they'll get it at Meadowridge.

Briar Patch agreed to foster the cats. The Boarding Barn, attached to Meadowridge, is housing the dogs until they could be fostered. Some of the care will be reimbursed, but Meadowridge and the Boarding Barn are absorbing much of the cost and responsibility for treating the animals. "They all seem to be really nice dogs," says Ms. Garland.

Melissa Munch and Ms. Garland raise $2,400 to rent the truck and pay for expenses, posting signs around town. Hunts Auto rented the truck at a discount. Ms. Garland says, "They searched high and low to get me a truck that had access (from the front of the truck) to the back, because there was no way of knowing how hot or cold it would be. And it was pretty hot down there. They had the air conditioning blasting to try to keep it cool in the back."

Drug companies have also agreed to reimburse the group for medicines used to treat the refugee animals. Merial will provide expensive heart worm medicine, and flea and tick treatments. Bayer will provide flea and tick and worming medicine. Novartis will also provide heart worm prevention and Pfizer is providing "Revolution," a heart worm preventative for cats.

Three dogs that were owner-surrendered can be adopted immediately, though they will be fostered for a short time to make sure they are alright. If animals are claimed by their owners the Humane Society of the United States is providing $500,000 to ship them back to their owners.

Ms. Garland says the group plans to keep raising money, "Because the need hasn't gone away. Now people are discovering they can't keep their pets. People responded to the initial wave, but the second generation wave is coming."

"This is a great community, because we will be able to foster all of these animals," says Ms. Garland. "We hope to do this again, which means we will need more cash." Meanwhile over 50 animals' lives have been saved.

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