Louisiana SPCA: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

Funds from the Petfinder Foundation were used towards our disaster response for Hurricane Ida. Our disaster response included:

-Adjusted staffing needs: Our staff were on-site and working to make sure the animals in our care and the community were safe since the day before Hurricane Ida began to impact our area.
-Increased number of transports: We increased the number of transports we normally do in anticipation of the influx of animals post-Hurricane Ida. We worked with our transport partners before and after the hurricane to prepare animals for transport.
-Addressed community need: We provided free pet food and supplies to community members in southeast Louisiana to ensure that the needs of all pets were being met. We also provided some vet care at cooling stations in Orleans Parish for those animals who were experiencing issues that could be easily treated.
-Increased need for kennels: Because we began working with new partners throughout the country that were not in driving distance, we had an increase in animals transported via airplane. We needed additional air kennels to transport these animals to their destination shelters. Additionally, we provided free kennels to residents who are evacuating with their animals and needed a safe way to contain their pets.

This grant helped our organization and the pets in our care by helping us fund our disaster response. As oldest and most comprehensive animal-welfare organization in the region, we worked with city, state, and federal agencies to ensure the safety and wellbeing of companion animals who had been impacted by Hurricane Ida.

This included addressing the needs of owned animals and ensuring that unowned animals were safe and out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, we also anticipated that, because of the significant damage to homes and businesses, people would begin to surrender their animals as they faced an uncertain future. These funds helped us address the issues with increased resources at our disposal.

How many pets did this grant help?

Our disaster response after Hurricane Ida helped more than 1,150 animals in southeast Louisiana.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Thanks in part to the Petfinder Foundation, we were able to save the lives of countless animals after Hurricane Ida and ensure that pets stayed with their families. One such family was Buster’s (first photo).

Before Hurricane Ida, Buster’s dad caught COVID-19. Because Buster’s dad was homeless, the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office put him up in a hotel room where he could isolate and recover. Unfortunately, Buster couldn’t go with him to the hotel, so we took him in at our shelter in Plaquemines Parish to care for him until his dad got better.

Then Hurricane Ida hit. Buster was terrified and our staff did everything they could to keep him safe and comfortable while staying in contact with his dad every step of the way. When they were finally reunited, they were both so happy and thankful that we were able to ensure Buster’s safety and welfare while he was in our care.