Veterinary triage centre in Mississippi is now home to more than 1,500 animals
BY BARRY GUNN, OVC
With Hurricane Rita threatening the Gulf Coast states three weeks after Katrina devastated a region the size of Great Britain, disaster relief workers in Hattiesburg, Miss., were worried about the unrelenting heat, not another storm.
“As long as it stays tracking the way it is, it's going to miss us, but if it deviates, who knows?” said Ontario Veterinary College graduate Carin Wittnich, nearly shouting to be heard above the crackle of her cellphone, barking dogs and the roar of aircraft flying overheard.
“At the moment, we're trying to move animals out, not so much because of the storm but mainly because we're having a heat wave,” she said. “I've been working in 110-degree weather every day since I got here.”
Wittnich, a professor at the University of Toronto's medical school, is in Mississippi working with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). She and U of T student Steve Soric drove down Sept. 16 after loading up her SUV with supplies donated by colleagues, veterinary practitioners and U of G.
She's based at a veterinary triage centre — housed in a converted fairgrounds equipped with barns and stalls — in Hattiesburg, a town of about 50,000 that was heavily damaged by Katrina despite being located about 100 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
The centre is now home to more than 1,500 animals — mostly dogs and cats but also horses and exotics such as parrots and iguanas and turtles — with as many as 120 more arriving each day. Fortunately for the animals and the volunteers, there's plenty of running water — though it's not fit to drink — food and electricity, which is not the case in some of the worst-hit regions.
“Conditions are tough, but we're kind of spoiled here,” says Wittnich, who earlier this year received the Distinguished Alumna Award from the OVC Alumni Association.
The triage centre is adjacent to a major staging area for the human relief effort, and armed guards patrol the area that is now home to rescue personnel from the U.S. armed forces, National Guard and civilian agencies.
Rescued animals are often in poor shape when they arrive at the centre, where they are decontaminated, examined, vaccinated, treated and given temporary shelter. In the sweltering heat, dehydration is a major concern, and intravenous fluids donated by OVC “have been a godsend,” says Wittnich.
Now that people in some parts of the region are starting to rebuild their lives, the centre has been able to reunite some pets with their owners. Many more are being relocated, with the help of animal rescue groups from across the United States and at least one from the Guelph area.
On the day Wittnich left for the States, Meg Brubacher and Bonnie Deekon, director of the Cambridge SPCA, returned to Guelph following a rescue mission to Alexandria, La. They brought back 15 dogs in a van lent to them by U of G's Central Animal Facility.
Despite the tough conditions and the workdays that last from 7 a.m. until one or two in the morning, Wittnich has no regrets.
“I am very glad I came. We're making a difference. We're always wearing our OVC T-shirts and Canadian flags. Everyone has taken notice of the fact that we're here and has been really appreciative. It's been very rewarding.”
For online information about the HSUS relief efforts, visit .www.hsus.org
