Animal Rescue New Orleans Begs You To Help

Please take time to view their website. The link to their website is below this sad letter from their Director. They desperately need food, supplies and volunteers.

Thank you for your comments to ar-no@cox.net. While I do appreciate your sentiments, I do feel it necessary to repond on a few points.

The Pet Evacuation Bill (LA SB-607) moved out of finance committee today to the Senate floor. We are well on our way to passing this bill.

Orleans Parish has already mandated pet/people evacuation in their plan and did not wait for it to be state law. We are the only parish in Louisiana or Mississippi that has done this. We may have an 'idiot" (Greenconsciousness notes: I called him an idiot who left them to drown) re-elected but he did feel that lives were lost and risked because of people's attachment to their pets.

While we respect rescues of animals in all states, and we continue to help rescuers in other states other than ourselves, we do expect when someone can lend a hand to a Katrina pet they will... not because of Katrina, but because it is a life to be saved.

That is the nature of independent rescue, cooperation among the rescue groups. When the national groups pulled out of here, granted Katrina was old news for them and no more publicity could be squeezed out of our situation, we stepped up to the plate. No other group is on the ground helping animals here.

And there are still thousands of animals with no food source. It is everyone's choice as to what pet in what state they help...we do not delete the pleas from other states that we get via email but forward them to those we think can help a specific breed or pet or assist them ourselves.

I am sure that you will continue to do the same.

We do not need to be warned that we need to help ourselves, that is why we (ARNO and us as citizens of New Orleans) are here. Yes, we continue to attract volunteers from all over the country, and outside of our country, and they leave with amazement as to the vastness of the devastation...over 650 square miles of no lights, no people, houses in the middle of streets, and cars stood up on end.

We do not have enough people here to employ to do the jobs available...water workers are in short supply so cannot cover the city to turn off the broken pipes through the vastness so area water pressure is so low we cannot put out fires using hoses.

The few grocery stores that are open do not have enough employees to have more than two to three cashiers, so a few items ends up in a couple hours wait. The list goes on.

The Anderson Coopers continue to bring 'human' news to the forefront, their executive producers do not think pets that important to headline the news... and yes, we have contacted them...they like our reunion stories, but everyone is tired of asking for help.

If pet people do not ban together and cooperatively help each other, no one else will. I don't know if you have had a chance to visit and see what we deal with every day... Our friends, family and neighbors have lost their homes. Our elderly population cannot return home because medical care is at a premium. Over 150,00 of our citizens are still not able to return home and 80% of our city is devastated.

Imagine driving through your city for 3 solid hours and where there used to be thriving neighborhoods filled with families and children, there is nothing left.

We are grateful to those who continue to help us, and hope we can in the future help tenfold those who have helped us through this...it is a very long road and the largest disaster ever in our country.

Thank you for keeping our needs in your thoughts.
Robin Beaulieu
Assistant Director
Animal Rescue New Orleans