For the Want of a Plan, 40,000 Pets Were Lost

by Carol Frischmann

When “the big one” shakes Northern California, will you and your pet know just where to go? You and your community have a plan to ensure people and their companion animals will survive, right?

Two new films, a just-released documentary by a veteran filmmaker and another film soon to be released, will send you scurrying to your emergency preparedness planner before the credits roll.

A veteran director

Filming unpleasant realities is not new to Mike Shiley, producer and director of five feature length documentaries including “Inside Iraq.” What Shiley filmed in New Orleans has become “Dark Water Rising: The Truth Behind Katrina Animal Rescues.” This beautifully photographed film shows something like the aftermath of war, a war with water.

We see the starving animals whose plight became a ticking clock for rescuers frustrated by putrid water, a lack of communication, and inadequate equipment and organization. Timely cuts make the viewing bearable. By the end of the acute phase of the disaster, 40,000 pets had died from starvation, exposure, and dehydration.

“The most difficult aspect of making the film was seeing the pets get rescued and wishing that I could do more to help them,” Shiley says. He also reports that the number of pets left behind in New Orleans may have been as high as 100,000. Across the region, the damage from Katrina stranded over 400,000 pets, according to Shiley.

Mixed efforts

Rescuers from all over the world descended on New Orleans, a place without a plan. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) coordinated the animal rescue effort, but New Orleans isn’t their town, and animals were not New Orleans’ first priority in a place overrun by human devastation.

The HSUS-coordinated rescue group was a mix of volunteers and professional animal rescue groups. Shiley says, “HSUS was relatively disorganized and overwhelmed because they were caught between the nightmarish bureaucracy of Louisiana and the fact that neither they nor anyone had ever dealt with such a huge disaster.”

When tensions boiled, a group of volunteer rescuers and a few veterinarians frustrated with HSUS’ emerging plan joined a splinter group called Winn Dixie. Headquartered in the parking lot of a deserted grocery store, workers camped, cooked, and organized their own, more aggressive effort.

“Dark Water Rising” shows the efforts of HSUS, Winn Dixie, and rescuers from around the world using sledgehammers to break down doors, wearing masks to protect themselves from mold.
The film shows volunteers’ tender touches to soothe the living and to dignify the dead. “Dark Water Rising” also shows joy. Volunteers find pets alive. Rescuers reunite pets with jubilant owners. Other lucky pets find loving new homes.

Marin's pet life-flight

Media arts professor Denise Richards’s film “Stormy Weather” picks up the story where “Dark Water Rising” ends. Marin rescuers airlift pets in an effort that frees space in overcrowded Louisiana shelters, allowing the shelters to take in more animals. Richards follows three displaced pets in their separate quests to return to normal lives.

Richards’s goal in making her film was “to promote awareness among pet owners of the importance of preparing an evacuation plan that includes their pets.” Richards also wants to help disaster preparedness agencies understand that pet owners place a very high value on saving their animals.

If Katrina had been fiction, viewers would say, “These are edgy disaster movies.” But Katrina was real. In August 2005, the volunteers, the families, the pets were living it. Shiley and Richards document what happened, helping to make this first anniversary a time to remember.

Area planning and self reliance

Richards says, “Especially in the event of an earthquake, humane workers concede that help will not be coming in a timely fashion; pet safety will be up to individual owners.” This drives Richards to plan screenings of “Stormy Weather” with humane professionals present to answer questions about including pets in home emergency preparedness plans.

Kim Upham, field producer for Shiley’s film, describes the complexity of the operation at the Lamar Dixon site where the huge animal rescue effort was headquartered. FEMA, HSUS, the Red Cross, the State Veterinarian, the Louisiana ASPCA, the American Humane Association, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare worked together on an unprecedented scale. Shiley’s film raises the question of how our nation’s cities should plan for animal evacuation in natural disasters.

See these films

To understand the result of failing to plan, see these films. You can watch Shiley’s trailer at www.DarkWaterRising.com, and watch the film at one of the screenings planned for the Bay Area. San Francisco, San Rafael, and Santa Rosa are among locations on the list. Find the screening nearest you at www.BraveNewTheaters.com. For information about screenings of “Stormy Weather,” contact Denise Richards at dogslifeproductions@comcast.net or 415-759-7300.