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| A litter of 10 puppies peer
out of their cage, Dec. 13, 2005, at the Humane Society of South Mississippi in Gulfport,
Miss.. |
Puppies are popping up everywhere amid the rubble
left by Hurricane Katrina - and animal welfare workers on the northern
Gulf Coast fear it is only the start of a big boom in dog births.
Officials say more than 6,000 pets were saved after Katrina came ashore
Aug. 29, and many of them were relocated to homes elsewhere in the
country. An unknown number drowned in the floodwaters or died later of
injuries.
But thousands of animals remain, running loose in neighborhoods where
fences were flattened and many owners are gone.
"I've never seen so many puppies in my life," said Manny Maciel, an
animal control officer from New Bedford, Mass., who made two trips to help
trap loose dogs and cats in New Orleans and
Mississippi.
Earlier this month, Maciel pulled 10 puppies and their mother from
beneath a porch in a hard-hit section of Biloxi. He found seven puppies
and seven dogs during another shift.
Maciel took all the dogs to the Humane Society of South Mississippi,
where a shelter now holds about 250 dogs and cats, including nearly 50
puppies. The shelter is the largest one on the Mississippi coast.
Workers have yet to see a spike in cat births, but there's no doubt
about what dogs have been doing since the hurricane, said Tara High,
executive director of the nonprofit group.
"We're beginning to get litters now," High said. "It's a lot of
puppies, and it is not the puppy season."
Maciel and partner Janis Moore drive through mostly abandoned
neighborhoods checking reports of stray animals and encouraging pet owners
to have their animals spayed or neutered.
Some owners are hesitant to part with their pets for fear they'll never
see them again.
"A lot of times it's the only thing they've got," said Moore, who has
made three trapping trips .
Animals without owners often wind up at the shelter, where workers are
overwhelmed despite the trickle of volunteers who help walk dogs and clean up.
About 300 animals had to be euthanized in November at the shelter, High
said, but all were too old, sick or aggressive to be adopted. New owners
have adopted 378 other dogs and cats.
"It's frustrating," said High, who has worked every
day but Thanksgiving since Katrina. "The phone does not stop
ringing."
(Agencies) |
卡特里娜颶風過后，碎石瓦礫間突然冒出了許多小狗崽，北部海灣的動物保護義工們擔心一輪“狗崽潮”就要來臨。
據官方人員介紹，去年8月29日卡特里娜颶風登陸后，有6000多只寵物獲救，大部分寵物被送往別處安了家。被洪水淹死及受傷后死去的寵物數量至今還不清楚。
但很多寵物還是活了下來，它們無家可歸，在破爛不堪、人去樓空的街道上四處游蕩。
馬薩諸塞州新貝德福德動物管理官員麥尼·馬舍爾說，我從來沒有見到過這么多小狗崽。麥尼之前去了新奧爾良和密西西比，就是為了捕捉那些無家可歸的小狗和小貓。
本月初，馬舍爾在比洛克西一個重災區的門廊下發現了10只狗崽和它們的狗媽媽，并把它們救了回來。在他另一次當班期間，他又發現了7只狗崽和7只狗。
馬舍爾把這些狗都送到了密西西比南部動物保護協會，這里的動物收容所現在共收留了250只狗和貓，其中包括近50只狗崽。這是密西西比河沿岸最大的一家動物收容所。
這個非盈利組織的執行理事塔拉·哈伊說，我們這里的工人都見識過“貓崽潮”，但現在出現了"狗崽潮"，這就不難猜測出卡里娜颶風后，小狗們都做了些什么。
哈伊說，“我們現在已經開始收留狗崽了，雖然現在不是狗繁殖的季節，但狗崽的數量很多。”
馬舍爾和他的同伴詹尼斯·摩爾開車去了大多數的災區，搜救那些無家可歸的寵物，同時，他們還說服寵物的主人將寵物的卵巢切除或閹割。
有些寵物的主人不太愿意和寵物們分開，擔心以后再也見不到它們了。
摩爾說，“在很多時候，寵物就是他們的唯一。”為了搜捕寵物，摩爾已經出了三次差。
沒有主人的寵物常常被收容所收留，盡管有一些志愿者來幫著遛狗和打掃衛生，但是工人們的工作量還是很大。
哈伊說，去年11月，收容所中大約有300只寵物被安樂死，但這些被安樂死的動物要么是老弱病殘，要么就是太兇狠。另有378只狗和貓被人領養。
哈伊說，“真是令人沮喪，電話鈴響個不停。”卡特里娜颶風過后，哈伊每天都在工作，只在感恩節休息了一天。
(中國日報網站編譯) |
Updated: 2006-01-06 09:38
