COURTESY ELIZABETH CAMPBELL
An undated handout photo shows Brie, a mixed breed and the first to arrive in Hawaii of more than 10 dogs rescued after Hurricane Katrina that still need homes.
|
|
Refugee dogs need homes
For three years, Waianae resident Elizabeth Campbell helped stray animals on Oahu find a home.
So when she thought about the animals left astray in New Orleans after last year's Hurricane Katrina, she booked a flight out the next week, and helped the regional animal cruelty group rescue more than 1,800 dogs in the area.
CALL TO ADOPT
To adopt a homeless dog from the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone, call Elizabeth Campbell at (808) 227-6361 or e-mail elizabeth.hsla@gmail.com.
On the Net
» Humane Society of the United States: www.hsus.org
» Humane Society of Louisiana: www.humanela.org
|
Now more than 10 of those dogs are coming from the Big Easy, through Campbell, to find homes in the Aloha State.
Campbell spent the past year in New Orleans acting as kennel master in the makeshift Camp Katrina set up by the Humane Society of Louisiana. Only about 10 of those dogs are still without a home and sit in the Mississippi field where Camp Katrina was set up.
"It is those dogs that I am bringing here to me in Hawaii, so that I can try to find them loving homes, and hopefully reward them with a life of aloha," Campbell said.
The first of the dogs, a mixed Dalmatian and English bulldog named Brie, arrived Monday. The animals have gone through a screening process and are healthy, she said.
Adopting a dog from Campbell is free, and requires an application process that includes a home check, "just to check to make sure the owners would be right for the dog," Campbell said.
Campbell flew to Florida, the closest she could get to New Orleans at the time, and rented a car. She stopped by a Wal-Mart, loaded up on granola bars, baby wipes and water. Armed with a homemade printed sign that said "Disaster animal rescue," she talked her way past military checkpoints and headed into flooded New Orleans.
There, she hooked up with Louisiana's humane society, which had set up an evacuation site in Tylertown, Miss. She stayed in New Orleans until the first anniversary of the disastrous hurricane.
Campbell said that in the weeks after Katrina hit, every day was hot, muggy and saw up to 100 dogs being brought in from flooded areas and homes.
"The dogs came in starving, severely dehydrated, injured, loaded with chemical burns and scared beyond words can describe," Campbell said. "Each dog had to be medically triaged and decontaminated."
Campbell said animal groups from around the country gathered to bring the animals back to their facilities. Some of the dogs went to a pair of alleged animal hoarders at Every Dog Needs a Home in Arkansas.
Property owners William and Tammy Hanson face charges of animal cruelty in Arkansas, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Animal hoarding, according to the national humane society, is a fixation on animals that lead to the inability to provide care. Campbell flew to Arkansas to pick up the dogs originating in Camp Katrina.
"It was heartbreaking beyond words to describe how the sick and starving dogs we had rescued from rooftops and locked homes were then sent ... and imprisoned in airline carriers for week, laying in their own urine and feces," Campbell said. "We didn't get all of our dogs back. Some had died there."