Katrina - write the Admiral in charge of FEMA Hurricane Relief

From CTV.ca

"They simply misjudged how long they'd be gone. They left food for a
couple of days, and now of course, people won't be able to enter for months."

Many of those animals sit forlornly on the rooftops of flooded homes
slowly starving to death as rescue boats ignore them, looking for people
instead. Some have even tried swimming to boats, only to be rebuffed by the
rescuers.

"A lot of these animals are pit bulls, rottweilers. We're not
approaching the dogs if we can help it," says Jitm Metza, a U.S. Coast Guard
searcher.

The number one reason that people did not evacuate is because they did not want to leave their animals and still there has been no public outcry; no demand that this stupid and cruel policy be changed.

Of course the good animal people are desperate to help but the big animal welfare organizations provide them with no way to do so - it seems they have not heard of Direct Action Organizing to change institutional policies or are so afraid of jeopardizing their funding that they are afraid of any action that might be deemed offensive by anyone.

So go over to Burning Bird, a beautiful blog that I learned about from Cat Out Loud's blog. Here is a sample but scroll down for the pictures:

In his story, he mentioned about the Humane Society and the work it is
doing helping out with the pets in the Gulf region. Many of the evacuees
were given no choice about taking their pets, because FEMA has rules that don't
allow people to bring animals. (The army and other military operations don't
have such, and did allow people to bring animals.)
Over a thousand homes in the St. Louis area have volunteered to be foster homes for pets from the region, but the Society is still overwhelmed with the magnitude of the rescue operation. Unlike human-related charities, those devoted to animals
don't always have a lot of extra cash on hand.

Then she proposes a grass roots effort called Critter to Critter.

But once again I must say this is sweet but not the answer. FEMA POLICY must be changed to let the rescuers in to rescue with the support of FEMA and the military (boats, spotters, shelters, food etc).

BIG MONEY must fund the animal rescue effort. FEMA policy of separating animals from owners during evacuation must be changed to fund special evacuation buses and shelters for people WITH their animals.

Action including defiance of bad laws must occur - that is what volunteers should be doing.