Brilliant way displaced pets are rescued and air-freighted to other states for rehoming in America

The news today about which I'm very pleased and impressed is that 28 cats which were displaced by Hurricane Helene have arrived at a Cape Cod shelter. And also, simultaneously, it's reported that cats rescued from the same hurricane have arrived in Cincinnati. Dozens of feline friends from Tift County Georgia are now at Cincinnati Animal Care.

And regarding the 28 cats displaced, referred to above, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals animal shelter on Route 28 received the animals on Tuesday, October 8 and they could be ready for adoption by the end of the week.

Cats are very resilient under these circumstances. But also, humans are very resilient and I'm referring here to Americans who do such a wonderful job of finding homes for cats displaced during natural disasters such as the one mentioned.

They do this over and over again and take in displaced and homeless cats out of one state and air freight them across the country to other states and other animal shelters where they can be rehomed. It's complex and it requires a lot of commitment, effort and time and money. And yet they do it obviously supported by many volunteers. These volunteers have hearts of gold as far as I'm concerned.

You don't see this kind of thing in Europe and in the UK where I live. It's is, it seems to me, specific to America where they have this well oiled machine which kicks into action. Perhaps it's partly due to the fact that they have lots of hurricanes it seems to me in America along a specific corridor.

Hurricane Helene was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction fatalities across the South-Eastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Big Band region of Florida, and the deadliest advantage hurricane since Maria in 2017.

America's great rehoming process

In the United States, when natural disasters like hurricanes displace companion animals, animal rescuers, shelters, and organizations come together to relocate and rescue these animals. The goal is to ensure that pets left behind or made homeless after a disaster are brought to safety, cared for, and, ideally, rehomed. This type of large-scale animal transport is complex and coordinated, involving many steps and stakeholders.

Process of Companion Animal Transport After Disasters

1. Initial Rescue Efforts:
   After a natural disaster like a hurricane, local authorities, animal control, and rescue organizations begin by identifying and rescuing animals. This could include dogs, cats, and sometimes other companion animals like rabbits or birds. Many of these animals are either found wandering, trapped in homes, or surrendered by families who can no longer care for them due to the crisis.
2. Temporary Shelters:
   These rescued animals are typically brought to temporary shelters or staging areas. Here, they receive medical care, food, and water. Many times, these shelters are set up by national animal welfare organizations like the ASPCA, Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and Best Friends Animal Society, along with local shelters. These temporary shelters often quickly reach capacity, especially in heavily impacted areas, and that’s where the need for transportation arises.
3. Assessment and Coordination:
   Rescuers assess the health and temperament of the animals to determine if they are fit for transport. Volunteers and coordinators from national organizations, local shelters, and transport groups create a plan for relocating the animals. The plan involves moving animals from the affected region to shelters in other parts of the country that have the space and resources to take them in. In many cases, a distinction is made between pets who were owned and need to be reunited with their families, and those who were strays or surrendered prior to or during the disaster. The former are often held locally for a period to allow families to reclaim them, while the latter may be transported sooner.
4. Air and Ground Transport:
   There are two main modes of transporting companion animals across the country:

• Ground Transport: Ground transport is typically coordinated using a network of volunteers or professional pet transport companies. They use specially equipped vehicles that can accommodate multiple animals in a safe and controlled environment. The trips are often long-distance and require careful planning to ensure the animals are kept calm, safe, and healthy during the journey.
• Air Transport: In more severe disaster situations, or when time is of the essence, air transport may be used. National organizations partner with airlines, pilots, or charter services to fly animals out of disaster zones to safer areas. Organizations such as Wings of Rescue, GreaterGood.org, and Pilots N Paws are frequently involved in this effort. After Hurricane Helene and other hurricanes, private aircraft, cargo planes, and even military planes have been used to evacuate animals.

1. Receiving Shelters and Rehoming:
   The animals are sent to shelters across the country that have capacity and resources to care for them. These receiving shelters might be in areas unaffected by the disaster, where adoption rates are higher or where the animals will have a better chance of being rehomed. For example, dogs from a hurricane-hit area in Texas may be sent to states in the Northeast, where there is a demand for adoptable pets. Once the animals arrive at their destination, they are often placed in foster care or in shelter adoption programs. The animals receive additional veterinary care and may be microchipped or spayed/neutered if necessary.
2. Public Awareness and Adoption Drives:
   Following the relocation of these animals, shelters and rescue organizations often launch public awareness campaigns and adoption drives. Highlighting that these animals are survivors of a natural disaster can attract attention and motivate people to adopt. These campaigns often have strong media coverage, drawing attention to the urgent need for homes for these pets.

Example: Hurricane Helene (or Similar Hurricanes)

Hurricane Helene, although not as notorious for animal displacement as other hurricanes (like Hurricane Katrina or Harvey), serves as a case study of how animals are moved in response to such disasters. After hurricanes, it is common for animal shelters in the affected region to be overwhelmed with stray or surrendered pets. Local authorities, overwhelmed by the number of displaced animals, seek help from national organizations.

For example, in hurricanes like Helene:

• Wings of Rescue or Pilots N Paws might arrange flights to transport animals out of affected areas.
• Shelters in unaffected states, like those in the Midwest or Northeast, would receive the animals. These shelters would prepare for an influx by recruiting extra volunteers, organizing adoption events, and reaching out to the public.

Key Organizations Involved in Disaster Animal Rescue

• ASPCA: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is often one of the first organizations on the ground to help coordinate animal rescues.
• Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): They provide direct response teams and coordinate the evacuation and relocation of animals.
• Wings of Rescue: A nonprofit organization that uses air transport to relocate animals from disaster zones.
• Best Friends Animal Society: They often play a leading role in disaster animal rescue and relocation efforts.
• Pilots N Paws: A volunteer organization that uses private pilots to transport animals.

Challenges in Transporting Animals

• Capacity: Shelters in disaster zones are often quickly overwhelmed, and coordinating the transfer of hundreds of animals is a logistical challenge.
• Health Risks: The stress of transport and the animals’ exposure to trauma can make them vulnerable to illness or behavioral issues.
• Resource Constraints: Coordinating large-scale evacuations requires funding, volunteers, vehicles, and space in shelters across the country, which can be difficult to secure quickly.
• Reuniting Pets with Owners: While some animals are transported for adoption, others may need to stay in the area to be reunited with their original families. Tracking and identifying pets during a chaotic event like a hurricane can be difficult.

Through this process, companion animals are given a second chance at life, and many are adopted into loving homes across the country, far from the disaster that originally displaced them.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Dave the stray cat befriended by 2 England footballers in Qatar to come to England

 

Kyle Walker who marked Kylian Mbappe in the quarter-final match between England and France, said: "John [Stones] named him Dave. Some people really don't like the cat but I love him. I love him."

The Three Lions returned to the UK without the World Cup but Dave the cat is going to be shipped out of Qatar despite the fact that the players said that they would only do it if they won the World Cup. This is a great result for Dave.

Dave on his way to a shelter in preparation for flying to England in due course. Image: Daily Mail photographer.

The promise that they would take him home was made by England defenders Kyle Walker and John Stone.

Before Saturday's defeat against France, Walker added: "Dave is fine. Hopefully I can stick to my promise that he will come home with us if we were to win the World Cup."

The video on this page at the top of the article shows you that Dave is coming home and the ladies in the video I believe are the ones who work at the Qatar Animal Welfare Society. They are being paid £2000 by the players to prepare Dave for his flight to the UK.

He will be micro-chipped, vaccinated, neutered and then he will have to spend four months in quarantine before making his trip to his new life in Manchester, England.

Dave is going to dislike that quarantine session tremendously but his future looks bright because he has somebody who really loves him and who will care for him.

The lady's name is Janet Barry, 68. The Times tells me that she is the head of the society. She said: "Dave a really lovely, talkative tabby and it's easy to see why the players fell in love with him. He's a beautiful cat and will be staying with me before he's flown to the players because we don't want him doing a disappearing act from the hotel.

She further added: "The FA [Football Association] approached me to help them after the players said they wanted him properly looked after and brought home."

The manager of the hotel where they stayed said that there are lots of stray cats around the souq "but Dave is now one of the fattest and healthiest after being fed at England dining tables for so long."

The stray cats are familiar across Qatar. There is one England player who is frightened of cats. He is the midfielder, Jordan Henderson.

His teammates, being aware of this, played pranks on him. A fellow midfielder, James Maddison, said: "The other day [Henderson] was eating and I just went behind him and brushed his leg with my hand. I have never seen someone shoot up so fast. He was so scared."

How long can it take to find a lost cat at an airport?

Sometimes 2 months or never based on research.

Obviously, it depends on many factors and you might be lucky but it seems to me that it can take a very long time indeed to find your cat if he or she has escaped their carrier at an airport. And in that time, your cat may become very unwell and injured. Here are some examples.

Rowdy was finally caught after spending three weeks on the run at Boston's Logan International Airport. The report says that she escaped from his cage in pursuit of some birds. I think that is a ridiculous comment because it can't be true. She escaped her carrier because the carrier was defective or it had somehow opened perhaps through rough handling.

Rowdy. Photo: AP.

Rowdy was in a normal hard carrier and travelled in the cargo hold. The family was flying with the German airline Lufthansa. The airline told them that their cat had escaped her carrier while cargo was being unloaded.

After three weeks it is believed that she became hungry enough and perhaps acclimatised enough to people at the airport to give herself up. Her owner was in disbelief she said: "I thought, what are the odds were actually going to get her back?"

She escaped on June 24 on her owner and husband's return from 15 years in Germany. The airline did a lot to find her. Agency staff and construction workers were involved. The used traps and relied on the fact that she was very hungry.

CNN reported in November 2011 but a cat called Jack had been lost at an airport for two months. He was lost at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Jack turned up at the airport's customs room after being missing for a long 8 weeks. 

On a health checkup he was found to be suffering from a range of health problems having extensive wounds which had not healed due to malnutrition. He was euthanised.

Pepper is a female cat who ran away as her owner was checking into a flight to China. The owner had to leave in any case. She was missing for a week and eventually found when the owner's friend called out her Chinese name.

In another case, Dinky, a Ragdoll cat became lost at Dubai Airport for two months. Her owners had travelled from Dubai Airport to Gatwick Airport. When they arrived at Gatwick her carrier was empty. He escaped at Dubai airport and was found at a rescue centre.

They realised that he had escaped his cage at Dubai because the cage was to clean clearly implying that he had not been in the cage for a while.

Obviously, the problem with cats breaking free of the carriers and airports is that they become very frightened and hide. Airports, air side, are noisy frightening places and a cat is going to run into a place where they feel more secure. I can recall one cat ending up in the ceiling space between a hanging ceiling and the concrete construction above.

My research indicates that it might take a long time to get your cat back. My gut feeling is that the problem is down to a cat carrier which is inadequate for the job combined with indelicate handling of the carrier. If you take your cat on a flight and they go into the hold of the aircraft I think the carrier has to be particularly robust and designed for the job.

In 2019 I wrote about a policeman who allegedly shot a friendly ginger cat Durban airport. I don't think the cat had escaped a carrier but was a well-known cat who hung around King Shaka International Airport. However, it does point to the possibility of a domestic cat escaping their carrier at this airport and not making it out alive!

In another rather macabre story of a cat lost at an airport, George, was lost at Edmonton International Airport. It was reported that he was found later frozen to death. However, the report may have been misleading because they may have got the wrong cat. George like other cats managed to escape his carrier on two occasions but nothing was done to repair the carrier after the first escape. We don't know whether he was found. He was a ginger tabby.

In another story, Milo was last at Dulles Airport, Washington DC. They were flying with Lufthansa. It appeared that the baggage handlers had carelessly damaged the carrier. The report stated he was missing but we don't know for how long. We don't even know whether he was found. I am sure that some cats lost at airports are never found.

USA: Upcoming Improved Airline Reporting of Pet Travel Incidents

The United States Transportation Department announced on Wednesday last that improved reporting processes will be put in place starting January 1 2015 with respect to pet transportations by airlines. As I understand it, more airlines will be obliged to report and the reporting data will include the number of flights that transport pets as well as the number of incidents thereby allowing people to assess the safety record more accurately.

Airlines will have to report the transportation of cats shipped by breeders (commercial shipments) in addition to what happens now, which is pets being shipped by owners.

Apparently more airlines are brought into the regulations because smaller airlines will be involved. The new rule places an obligation upon airlines to report on animals that are injured, lost or killed during transportation.  The number of carriers obliged to report has been expanded from 14 to 27.

Between May 2000 May 8, 2010 government statistics indicate that 122 dogs died while being transported by airlines by their owners as cargo.

Animal advocates had asked that the rules be extended further to include all animals, as I understand it, but I believe it was decided that it created too onerous task.

Apparently, Delta airlines has (or had) the worst record in respect of pet transportation incidents but it appears that they have cleaned up their act because Delta reported 16 pet deaths in 2010 and 2 in 2013.  However, in 2011 more than 50% of pets who died during airline travel, flew Delta.

The improvement is put down to restrictions on the transportation of cats and dogs with breathing problems due to their extreme anatomical features. I'm referring to pugs for example and the modern Persian cat. It seems that it is more difficult for a pet to breathe in the hold of an aircraft and if a cat already has some difficulties in breathing then the combination can prove fatal.