Dogs Deserve Better, an anti-tethering group, is in need of photos for its 2010 calendar. If you’re a guardian, foster parent or rescuer of a formerly chained or penned dog(s), read on:

Calling for Calendar Photos

DDB is once again calling for photo entries for the 2010 Dogs Deserve Better Calendar!!

Please send (happy) after photos of rescued formerly chained or penned dogs along with before photos (if possible) in high resolution.

Send your entries to dogs [at] dogsdeservebetter.org

All entries are needed by September 10, 2009

I apologize for the late notice – it’s been a busy few weeks.

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The Gentle Barn, a farmed animal sanctuary located in Santa Clarita, California, has provided refuge to nonhuman animals displaced by the recent California wildfires. Included below are two recent emails, detailing their volunteer and supply needs. If you’re in the area, please stop by and help out if you can!

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: The Gentle Barn – info [at] gentlebarn.org
Date: Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 3:51 PM
Subject: The Gentle Barn Rescues Animals from the Station Fire

The Gentle Barn Rescues Animals from the Station Fire

The Gentle Barn continues to help ranches and sanctuaries evacuate from the Station Fire and take in stranded animals. To date, The Gentle Barn has taken in horses, donkeys, pigs, goats, ducks, and chickens.

At The Gentle Barn the animals will not only be provided refuge from the Station Fire and medical care until they return home, but will also receive all of the benefits The Gentle Barn offers its regular residents, including equine massage therapy, proper nutrition and supplements, quality feed, and plenty of tender loving care.

This Sunday, September 6, 2009, The Gentle Barn invites the public to visit, and help nurture and care for these rescued/evacuated animals. Visitors can feed them carrots, lettuce, and treats, help give baths to the horses, give the pigs tummy rubs, and grab a rake and muck out a stall.

The Gentle Barn will continue to be on call to help and support victims evacuate their animals, as more homes and ranches are threatened by the wildfires.

We have seen too many organizations and people with a lot of animals suffer without a plan. Later in the year, we will be holding a community meeting and inviting city officials to speak about fire safety and evacuation plans.

As the number of animals at The Gentle Barn increases we are asking for donations to help feed and care for them.

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Breeze Harper of Sistah Vegan Project and Vegans of Color is conducting a survey on the racial/ethnic identities of vegans living in the U.S. If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to complete the survey. You can also follow the results on the Vegans of Color blog.

Action Alerts: Animal & Environmental Advocacy

Alaska Wilderness League: Sec. Salazar: Ditch the Bush plan and put science first

Animal Person: On Why You Should Post Videos Beyond YouTube

The Animal Rescue Site: Save Orphan Bears: End Cruel Den Hunts

Center for Biological Diversity: Save Oregon Wolf Pair From Airborne Sharpshooter

Center for Biological Diversity: Tell Verizon: Don’t Sponsor Mountaintop Removal Rally

DawnWatch: Wolves, elephants and glorious dolphin news 9/4/09

DawnWatch: “Animal Week” on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air.” 8/31 — 9/4/09

Defenders of Wildlife: Help Stop the International Polar Bear Trade

Environment New Mexico: I want all of our waters protected by the Clean Water Act.

Humane Society International (HSI): Tell the U.S. that polar bears must be protected!

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This past weekend marked the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Four years ago last Saturday, Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, causing untold property damage, environmental destruction and loss of life from Florida through Texas. At least 1,836 humans died, victims of nature, government ineptitude and indifference, and racism and classism. The number of nonhuman animal victims will never be known.

Though I didn’t observe the occasion here in writing, the anniversary didn’t pass me by unnoticed. The weekend’s birthday celebrations were bittersweet; while spoiling my dog-kids with homemade treats, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the many dogs who perished in the storm and its aftermath – some of them murdered in cold blood, by people who should have been their protectors.

A year after Katrina, I marked the day with a sort a photo retrospective, which I titled “The Greatness of a Nation,” after the much-loved Mahatma Gandhi quotation. Three years later, I don’t have much to add, so I invite you to go check it out if you haven’t already.
 

 
The past four years have seen a number of books and films made about Hurricane Katrina; see, for example, Douglas Brinkley’s The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006); Jed Horne’s Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City (2008); and Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (2009). Many of these projects have focused on animal rescue efforts: Mike Shiley’s Dark Water Rising: Survival Stories of Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescues (2006); Best Friends’ Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans (2006); Cathy Scott’s Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned (2008); and even children’s books, such as Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival (2008).

Released in 2007, Tom McPhee’s An American Opera: The Greatest Pet Rescue Ever! is a documentary recounting the spontaneous and titanic efforts undertaken by local and national animal activists to rescue the nonhuman animals caught in Hurricane Katrina’s wake:

Tom McPhee’s An American Opera: The Greatest Pet Rescue Ever! is a multi-award winning documentary film chronicling what happened during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana when pet owners were forced to evacuate without their pets. An American Opera follows the pets, vets, owners, officials, rescuers, and adopters of animals as they try to remedy the situation, revealing that not everyone had the same goal of saving animals. Tom McPhee directed, narrated, and produced the film with the production companies Man Smiling Moving Pictures and Cave Studio.

Interviewing leaders of animal organizations and volunteers who went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it is revealed that at the beginning, everyone had different ideas about how things should be done, but no one was willing to take charge because the problem was bigger than anyone could have imagined. The film champions the volunteers whose only concern was saving animals, unlike the animal organizations who were more concerned with the chain of command.

After about a month, the state put the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in charge who told the volunteers to stop rescuing. Anyone not with the LA/SPCA was considered ‘rogue’ and operating outside the authority. Meanwhile, the police in St. Bernard Parish were shooting dogs in what they say was a form of mercy.

Months after Katrina, many owners are still not reunited with their pets because they do not know where they are and do not have the means to find them. Some people have found that their animals have been adopted out and cannot get them back.

The film ends with Barkus, a Louisiana pet parade, indicating New Orleans was not washed away with the hurricane.

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Here’s the latest update from California via Kinship Circle (you can view previous alerts here and here). If you’re able to help out in any way, shape or form, please follow the directions contained within the alert. I’m not affiliated with Kinship Circle or any of the CA-based animal rescue groups – I’m simply trying to spread the word! Kinship Circle welcomes readers to crosspost its alerts (as is), so feel free to copy and paste this post if you’d like.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle – info [at] kinshipcircle.org
Date: Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Animals In California Fires: An Overview

KINSHIP CIRCLE ANIMAL DISASTER AID NETWORK

www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/

9/2/09: Animals In California Fires – An Overview

1. Animal Acres Update
2. Wildlife Waystation
3. Pasadena Humane Society
4. Shambala Big Cat Sanctuary
5. Horses Ride Out Fire At Pierce College Equestrian Center
6. Fire Evacuation Sites That Accept Animals

=========================

1. Animal Acres Update

Animal Acres / 5200 Escondido Canyon Rd / Acton, CA 93510
661-269-5404 * info [at] animalacres.org * animalacres.org

LT: Pigs get a drink at the evac site.

RT: Animals rest at their evacuation center near Palmdale, Calif.

“Acton, CA. Apr. 29, 2009. Lorri Houston, Exec. Director of Animal Acres, a 26 acres farm animal sanctuary that strives to provide farm animals welfare and affection. They have taken no precautions and still have tours of school kids and visitors doing hands-on petting of pigs and other animals. A 1 month old piglet in the sanctuary on Apr. 29, 2009.”

Farm animals evacuated because of Station fire.

ON THE GROUND: SITUATION CONTAINED. STANDBY VOLS NEEDED FOR RETURN TRANSPORT.

Frank Allen, Animal Acres’ manager, tells Kinship Circle all animals are safely evacuated to one site. Volunteers will be needed when time to transport animals back to Animals Acres — a task that may be more difficult than the evacuation itself, since everyone is spread out.

Frank will not risk moving animals until the fires are 95% contained and out of the area. As in any crisis situation, we ask for your patience and flexibility…as circumstances can change in a heartbeat.

UPDATE FROM ANIMAL ACRES FOUNDER LORRI HOUSTON:

“We are safe and all animals have been relocated… The past two days, volunteers have installed wire lines directly to the animal enclosures, constructed additional pen areas, and moved cleaning, health care, and feed supplies and equipment to the evacuation site — as it now appears that the sanctuary animals will not be able to return until September 15 or later.“

Animal Acres needs $$ for construction of shade shelters and automatic waters, as animals will be at the evac site awhile in high temperatures.

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