PETA Rescue Team Packed and Waiting for the First Flight to Flood-Ravaged Puerto Rico

Gear, Supplies, and a Veterinarian Waiting for First Flights Out to Help Retrieve Animals Endangered by Hurricane Maria

For Immediate Release:
September 22, 2017

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA’s Animal Rescue Team is waiting for the first available flight to Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria has caused catastrophic flooding, leaving an estimated 3.4 million people without power and endangering an unknown number of humans, dogs, cats, and other animals. The members of the team, including a veterinarian, are trained in animal emergencies and will be equipped with supplies and rescue gear. Photos and video footage of the team’s rescue efforts will be available throughout the week.

“Hurricane Maria has devastated Puerto Rico, and while strays already had a hard life existing on the streets before the hurricane hit, the storm has surely left animals injured from flying debris and in grave danger of starving,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA’s Animal Rescue Team is taking food and supplies to help in any way it can.”

PETA’s rescue team members have just returned from Texas, where they trudged through the floodwater to search for abandoned, lost, and injured animals. They helped save over 100 animals—including dogs, cats, chickens, and an armadillo—from areas of Texas and Louisiana hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.

Among numerous other animal-rescue efforts over the years, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—previously dispatched teams in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as well as the BP oil spill and last year’s devastating flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.