Disaster Relief: saving the forgotten victims

After Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit the US Gulf Coast in the late summer of 2005, IFAW was there. IFAW conducted door-to-door search and animal rescue operations in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina where evacuees were forced to leave their pets behind, helping to rescue and relocate thousands of animals as well as reunite hundreds with their missing pets.
 
IFAW’s hurricane relief efforts also included helping to coordinate the massive request for pet supplies and shelter assistance, as well as delivering multiple financial grants to help local animal organizations such as the LSPCA and LSU Vet School with the hurricane pet rescue.

Soon after deadly tornadoes blasted through four Georgia counties in the southeastern US, IFAW worked with the American Humane Association, Albany Georgia Humane Society, Thomasville Animal Control, Kentucky Humane Society, and local volunteers to provide shelter for injured and displaced animals, including dogs, cats, horses, cows, goats, birds and wildlife.

In Russia, IFAW provided emergency funding to enable rangers to protect from poachers tens of thousands of migratory birds, including geese and swans, that had been forced to land en masse in the Archangel region, following heavy snow storms.

When heavy rainfall caused major flooding in impoverished settlements along the Jukskei and Klip rivers in South Africa, IFAW's Emergency Relief Team worked with other organizations to provide immediate relief.

We helped feed and treat about 350 dogs and 95 cats in little more than seven hours. In three severely affected communities, IFAW distributed 2,500 cans of moist food and 300 kilograms of dry dog and cat food, gave rabies and distemper vaccinations, and treated animals for kennel cough, billary, ticks, fleas and worms.