As people ventured out after the hurricane, they started to find vulnerable animals who had fallen from trees or hunkered down to hide when the hurricane hit. Full-time animal-rescue work continues, even as the heavy metal canisters that floated into our parking lot while our street was masquerading as a river were taken away by men on forklifts and volunteers worked alongside our Operations crew to clear up all the fiberglass, plaster board, metal pipes, and whatever else had been blown out from the underside of our building, leaving it all exposed. We worked, too, to get our Bea Arthur dog park cleaned up for canine visitors, but our beautiful, solid (well, it used to be solid!) dog deck buckled and was uprooted and shredded—and, unfortunately, it’s too pricy to replace. But here's Mr. Jones, the dog who wandered into a fire department at the tail end of the storm, all decked out in his new harness, inspecting the dog park before going back to the vet. Thank you to everyone who has been asking about these dogs―being so old and confused, Mr. Jones touched a lot of hearts.

All day Sunday, the emergency pager went off. At the crack of dawn, we took in a dying kitten who had been picked up by a kind ambulance crew; then came two wild bunny babies suffering from exposure and starvation, followed by calls for help with baby squirrels, most of them found on the ground and badly injured. Seeing those tree branches shake and twist most of Saturday and into the night, it was clear that the local squirrel nation was going to suffer some major casualties. We picked baby squirrels up out of puddles left by the massive pounding of rain, many of them drowned, some on their way out of this life. I will spare you the sad pictures. There were some bright spots, as there always are in search and rescue: Here are two photos.

In the first one, these three very cold, hungry, wet baby squirrels were found hidden inside the hollow trunk of a tree by a man who had begun cutting it up because it had fallen onto his house. It had obviously been their home, but it had come crashing to the earth in the storm (our soil is quite sandy and roots are often shallow). A long wait and watch ensued but no mother was found, so the squirrel babies are now being fed by bottle. PETA spay/neuter clinic fleet manager Cindy Emmanuel is still without power, but that didn't stop her from feeding baby squirrels who were found in a wildly swaying hanging plant squirrel formula all weekend, then getting the basket hung back up again. Fortunately, their mother came racing back to them! 

The other photograph is of Victor, who came to us from El Salvador 25 years ago this month and hasn't stopped working since. He thought cleaning up the debris that fell off our building would be a good way to celebrate his anniversary—what a great guy! You can help too. Please consider making a donation that will help with our rescue efforts after Hurricane Irene and beyond.

Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk

It's Sunday morning. Our building is in tatters, and two of our vehicles have cried "Uncle," but we have two more vehicles, and they and our emergency rescue efforts are still going strong. We are all so glad to keep getting the calls. Last night was very hard indeed: Our journeys took us into dark, deserted streets without traffic lights, deep in water, all bridges closed, tunnels and many roads impassable, tree limbs blowing about like kudzu. It took us longer to go a mile than to go five on a good day. We often had to turn back to find a new route through to our destination, as cars were abandoned, their lights below the water. But it was a successful night for some animals! I shan't tell you about them all, as we are leaving again now, but here are just a few of our rescues.

Just before dark, some wonderful person called in about this scared dog, named Nikita. The winds were nearing 70 miles per hour. He had been in this pen, with only one sheet of wood above him for "shelter" for three days. His people had left town. He came with us. That's his "after" picture. We will be looking to talk to his people, and they are on the list of those we hope to see in court. And, no, we will not be returning any of the animals who were abandoned to their own devices.

Nikita's PETA staff foster parents report:

At midnight, I was at a Motel 6 with another PETA staffer. Members of an indigent, caring family, who had no apartment to call home, were holed up in a leaky room as their pit bull puppy, named Prada, lay dying of Parvo. She was barely 3 months old, and they clearly loved her. Thirty-six hours earlier, they had scraped together the money to take her to the vet. The vet had taken their cash and pumped the little tyke full of intravenous fluid, but it should have been clear that she had no chance, and he should have told them then. Now, she was in misery, crying, and the family was desperate, asking us to please relieve her of her suffering. Her guardian said, "When I saw tears streaming from her eyes, I knew I had to make the call." Unable to lift her head, she was cuddled on our lap all the way back to our building before she was put to rest.

Early this morning, just as the water receded, leaving us to survey the extent of the damage to our building, a call came in from a fire department. A dog had wandered in, old and covered with mange, and collapsed on their floor. The firefighters were lovely to him, giving him more love than he must have had in his whole life. The marks of where he once had had a collar are around his neck, and he has more sores than hair. He is now on our couch in the big quarantine room, sleeping after a welcome meal.

Thank you to everyone for asking about us, to the staff who stayed in the swaying building all night ("It was like the earthquake all over again"), all the people who did not evacuate but stayed to take calls and go attend to them, and our vice president in charge of emergency response, Daphna Nachminovitch, who was out all night and had to swim the final block home, her waders no longer tall enough to keep the water out, (up to her waist!), the road too deep to drive through, only to be called out again. Thank you to the staff and volunteers and interns who made calls for three days straight to get people to take their animals inside; to Director Pete Raffeto and his operations crew, who provided everything we needed; to everyone out there now trying to remove the debris; and to so many more. And a huge "Thank you SO much!" to each one of you who has given to PETA's Animal Emergency Fund. If you haven't been able to donate yet, please consider that even a small donation will help with our rescue efforts during Hurricane Irene and beyond. We love you all!

Written by Ingrid Newkirk

Who knows who we don't hear about out there, but meet Angel and Sasha. A big thank-you to whoever alerted PETA to their plight—they were tied outside on a tiny metal balcony all night Friday as Hurricane Irene barreled toward Norfolk. The eye of the storm was an hour away when PETA turned up at the apartment, acting on a tip. The woman inside said that the dogs were her brother's (we hear that all the time!) and that she hadn't heard from him in a month. Although they were soaked to the skin and scared, she refused to take them inside, claiming that they were "destructive." She signed them over to us, and since our building is right on the water and the gusts were going to shake it pretty badly, we took them to a local open-admission shelter. Boy, were they glad to be off that balcony, dried with towels, and out of the storm: They skipped and kissed us!  

Please, if you see an animal in distress, don't count on someone else to be the Good Samaritan—call your local animal control, step in to provide assistance yourself, or contact PETA right away. Your quick and firm actions could save lives.

The winds picked up in Hampton Roads early Saturday morning, with gusts that shook trees and water pooling in low-lying areas. Forecasters are now saying that tonight will bring the worst, as the brunt of the storm will hit at high tide. Already, a couple with a cat who thought that they could ride out the storm in their sailboat, had to be pulled out of the water by marine police. Miraculously, the cat survived. 

Our first emergency pager call came from a sharp-eyed Good Samaritan who had somehow spotted this little tyke tied to a backyard grill so tightly with a shoe string that she had to keep on her feet or she would strangle. Yes, she couldn't lie down, and she had been left that way all night long. She was in a flood plain that had been evacuated, so there was no one anywhere in sight and the rains were bucketing down. We took her to our headquarters, dried her off, gave her a good meal, and she is currently in foster care.  She's about 10 weeks old. What an introduction to human nature.

The worst is yet to come, but our Community Animal Project and other PETA staffers are out there, responding to emergency calls, and we'll keep you updated. If you know people in the path of the hurricane, please urge, plead, cajole, and demand that they bring their animals indoors and take their animals with them if they evacuate. Thank you.

Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk

From the time he was 3 months old, Ringo's "life" consisted of pacing on a patch of dirt in a junk-filled backyard, deprived of the love that every dog needs and deserves, chained up like an old bicycle. When PETA's fieldworkers found him, Ringo was suffering from intestinal parasites and was at least 15 pounds underweight. His growth was stunted from chronic malnutrition.

PETA's fieldworkers were eventually able to convince Ringo's guardian to surrender him. Now, Ringo has a real life—one with a loving family and a little "sister" dog named Speedo who keeps Ringo on his toes! A big goofball, Ringo loves to run around at the PETA dog park and is too busy having fun to dwell on his past.

If there is a chained or penned dog in your neighborhood, please get involved. Like Ringo, many neglected dogs' lives have been changed because someone cared enough to offer to take them for a walk or give them treats, toys, and some much-needed love. You can make a difference! Speak up for chained dogs today.

 
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

British beauty Tamara Ecclestone's new ad for PETA U.K. is sure to get engines revving.

"All dogs deserve to be loved", says Ecclestone, who appears in the ad with her beloved mutt, Buster. "I encourage everyone to do what they can to help animals in need and to open their homes and their hearts to a dog only if they have the time, resources, and patience to care for the dog."

The Formula 1 Racing correspondent and daughter of racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone has used her pull to persuade racers and sponsors to swear off fur and shun foie gras. 

Stateside, Ecclestone supports PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP), which helps provide veterinary care, shelter, disaster assistance, and spay/neuter surgeries to animals in Virginia and North Carolina. You can help CAP, too, by making a donation to SNIP, which is PETA's mobile low-cost spay/neuter clinic, or to PETA's Animal Emergency Fund. 
 

Written by Michelle Sherrow