A Message From Ingrid E. Newkirk

Out of the devastated Gulf Coast came wonderful photographs of people who were hugging cats to their chests as they waded through the water, a man who was handing a trembling beagle through the window of a submerged house, and a girl who was running from a wrecked gas station while carrying a stray dog in her arms. Each image illustrates the fact that even in times of great personal hardship, many humans look out for all living beings. Hotels that normally do not allow animals abandoned their “No Pets” policies.

Millions of animals perished in Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, including feral cat colonies and wildlife, such as squirrels and slow-moving opossums. The bodies of raccoons, chickens, and foxes floated in the water. And then there were thousands of animals who were deliberately or unthinkingly abandoned—cats who were carefully locked in bathrooms “for a couple of days” in New Orleans, a city that became Atlantis, and dogs who were left attached to their miserable chains, where they could only swim in place until they died of exhaustion. Rabbits drowned slowly as the water rose in their hutches. They were not even given a fighting chance.

As we do with companion animal overpopulation, PETA works at the roots when there is a natural disaster. Whenever a hurricane, fire, or flood approaches, PETA blankets the area in advance with urgent advisories and radio and TV announcements in which Rue McClanahan and William Shatner ask people to never, ever leave an animal behind. This saves countless lives!

Please go now to HelpingAnimals.com to read our disaster preparedness tips and to donate to PETA’s Animal Emergency Fund.

For all animals,



Ingrid E. Newkirk
President