Helping Floyd's Furry Victims

The human suffering from hurricane Floyd's floodwaters is obvious, but it's easy to overlook the other victims. Animals of all sorts have suffered from Floyd's soaking as well, and hundreds have needed to be rescued by volunteers, reports CBS This Morning.

Jennifer Roberts is a deputy animal control officer in Fairfax county Virginia who made the trip to North Carolina to lend a hand. She took an emergency/crisis rescue class this summer and after the class was asked if she was interested in volunteering for the Nationwide Disaster Response Team, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.

Hurricane Floyd had raged through North Carolina leaving people and their pets in need of help. Roberts helped to rescue over 300 animals - everything from drowning cats and dogs to bunnies.

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Jennifer Roberts

Besides the dirty raging floodwaters, she faced huge water snakes and bugs as big as her hand. "Everything just wanted in that boat," she explains.

But she adds, "This was the most rewarding experience of my life. It was great to bring a little happiness into these people's lives. Some of them lost everything, so if we could return their pet to them safely, it made a big difference."

There were other critters in need, not just pets. "We also rescued cows, a turtle and a duck," Roberts says. "I know, some people say, 'Why did you have to rescue a duck from the water?' But it was covered in heating oil and in danger of dying. The turtle was in totally contaminated water, and it too was in danger of dying." She adds, "I really felt like I made a difference."

Roberts and many others. Hundreds of people and scores of groups are pitching in with animal rescues.

Volunteers with the Emergency Animal Rescue Service first sighted a German shepherd swimming around some mobile homes in Belvoir, N.C., a low-lying community beside the swollen Tar River.

The dog rested on a porch that was barely above the water, then took off as a boat came slowly toward her, swimming to a car and climbing to its hood. Three boats with rescuers closed in and one jumped into the chest deep water to get her.

After more coaxing, a rescuer lassoed the dog and got her on the boat, where she calmed down and quietly got in a crate. "Good girl," one tough outdoorsmen type cooed at the wet, shaking dog. "You'll be OK now."

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A cow found shelter in a trailer, but one of its unlucky herd-mates floats outside.

It was just another day in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd for volunteers with EARS. They arrived right after the storm and its record floods struck. They take all the rescued animals to a building on a college campus in Greenville. There hundreds of pets abandoned as their owners evacuated are photographed, tagged, collared, bathed and checked out by a veterinarian before being placed in a crate and fed.

EARS is part of the United Animal Network, a non-profit animal advocacy organization based in Sacramento, Calif. Hundreds of community volunteers are also pitching in, even taking pets home temporarily, so there's always room for the next stray dog, cat, bird or even goat, iguana or rabbit.

Terri Crisp, director of EARS, says it's been a pretty desperate situation. "I've seen dogs swimming out to boats, almost literally jumping into the boats. One almost licked me to death, he was so happy just to have human companionship."

The Humane Society, EARS, and the cable channel and Animal Planet, have all been working together to rescue farm animals and pets. So far, they have saved more than 400 animals, mostly dogs, says Jeannette Edelstein of Animal Planet. Workers also drop feed from helicopters to horses and cattle stranded on small islands of land.

The Humane Society has coordinated animal relief efforts in the 66 counties that President Clinton declared disaster areas. Each disaster presents its own problems, says Chris Champine, director of disaster response for HSUS. In the case of Floyd's flooding, "It's so prolonged and ever-changing," he says. "One day a road is open, the next day it's not. And it covers a wide geographic area."

EARS rescuers go to addresses given to them by pet owners so they can pick up the animals. When rescuers find dogs on dry land with shelter, they leave behind food and water unless an owner has requested their rescue.

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A dog waits on the roof of a house to be rescued.

Owners are regularly forced to abandon pets when disaster strikes, especially when it catches people off guard, Crisp says. Although Floyd had North Carolina in its sights for days before it made landfall, the record flooding caught everyone off guard.

"They were taken out by helicopter or boat," Crisp says. b>"And human life comes first, as it should. So if they had animals with them, they frequently were told they couldn't bring them."

A Pitt County resident, Sandra Woolard of Belvoir, released her 26 Walker hound dogs Friday when she had to evacuate. The water was chest high, and she thought they stood a better chance of surviving if they were loose rather than in their dog pens. When she arrived at EARS to volunteer, she found five of her hounds and her rat terrier. "I was crying; I was thanking God," she says Wednesday, her voice shaking.

EARS rescuers John Whichard and Chris Hendrix took a 19-foot boat through waters that ranged from less than a foot deep to more than 30 feet to save three dogs. They battled currents strong enough to turn the boat. Hendrix says he did it because his family has two dogs and two cats, and would like to think someone would do the same for him in similar straits.

Whichard says he talked Hendrix into taking his boat out simply because he's an animal lover. "I can't stand to seem them suffer like that," he says. "They're the truly less fortunate. The humans can get out, but they can't."

To see photos of lost pets, go to the Humane Society's Web site.

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