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BVSPCA mobilizes staff in south & north for Hurricane Ida

300+ Dogs & Cats Evacuated from the Storm Zone

With Hurricane Ida bearing down on the Louisiana coast, our team mobilized immediately in two locations – our home base in the PA/DE region and at the shelter in Louisiana where we’ve had our staff working. We’ve tapped into that unique ability to work both in the north and in the south to get as many homeless animals out of the shelters as possible before and after the storm.

First Evacuation Flight

On Saturday we received an airlift of 110 cats and dogs from the Tangipahoa Parish shelter where our team has been working since January to help increase lifesaving. These homeless pets arrived on a Wings of Rescue airlift flight sponsored by Petco Love and the ASPCA. Relocating these pets removes them from harm’s way while making space for any locally displaced pets to stay local.

The pets, all of which have cleared any stray hold periods, went up for adoption across our campuses and were greeted by lines of people waiting to welcome them when we opened the next day. We also organized several local shelter partners to take some of the animals into their adoption program.

Post-Storm Evacuations

It was stressful waiting for word that our staff working in Louisiana and our many shelter friends there were safe. We’re relieved that it was all good news. But conditions there are poor.

Wide-spread power outages continue, flood waters continue to rise, and several shelters we work with sustained damage. To help area shelters recover and focus on displaced family pets, we organized the first rescue airlift to bring shelter animals out of the hurricane zone, thanks to Petco Love and Wings of Rescue.

The Wednesday flight carried 212 dogs, cats and rabbits up for adoption before the storm at seven shelters and rescues, including our home base of Tangipahoa Parish Animal Services. The dogs and cats moved are moving to our campuses to be available for adoption starting Thursday and Friday. We also lined up our friends at SPCA Cincinnati to take some of the dogs and cats plus the rabbits.

How You Can Help

We’re doing this work on top of our regular daily work to help lost and stray animals, cruelty victims, and pets needing rehoming. We need your support to help the homeless pets and people of Louisiana at this critical time. Here’s how you can get involved:

  • Adopt 1 pet and save 2 lives: If you’ve been thinking of adopting, doing so now will not only rescue the cat or dog you bring home, it will open a cage for a homeless pet at risk in the hurricane’s path. All adoption fees waived through through Sunday (9/5). Browse adoptable pets.

  • Foster a dog or cat: Opening your home temporarily to a cat or dog will allow us to rescue more homeless pets from the hurricane zone. Signup to foster.

  • Support this critical work: We do these disaster rescues on top of the important work that happens every day to help lost and stray animals, cruelty victims, and family pets needing to be rehomed. Make a donation to support this disaster relief work.

Some of the pre-storm rescues

We’ll keep you posted as the work evolves. We’re grateful to have you in our community as part of #TeamBVSPCA!

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