November
2005
DIY Animal
Rescue
The Satya Interview with
Andy Stepanian |
|
 |
Photos by Andy Stepanian |
On September 22, three volunteers
from the Animal Defense League of Long Island packed about 10,000
pounds of donated goods into a truck
and headed down to the Gulf to aid in hurricane relief efforts. Their
mission, according to their website, was to “fulfill the often
overused and seldom applied activist mantra that the struggles for
human and animal liberation are unilateral.” Before leaving,
the ADL organized a concert featuring Victory Recording Artists The
Sleeping, and the community warmly responded, bringing clothing, sheets,
diapers, monetary donations, and other much-needed goods. The objective
of the volunteers was to distribute the items among the various shelters
and parishes surrounding New Orleans and then, on their way home, rescue
as many abandoned animals that they could legally fit inside their
truck to adopt out to loving homes in New York and Pennsylvania.
After distributing the donated goods and rescuing many animals, these tired and
shocked volunteers made their way back home. One of the activists, Andy
Stepanian,
spoke with Maureen Wyse the day after he arrived back from the Gulf.
So, tell us about the trip.
We set out to address the human needs first and then bring suffering animals
back. In Mississippi, we checked out 20 different places before we felt comfortable
leaving our donations. Clothing was ending up in piles, not where people needed
it. This became a reoccurring trend that we saw throughout the trip, and it wasn’t
only about clothing and supplies, but also with every chain of command—everything
was falling apart.
We finally found a Catholic church in Biloxi, Mississippi, that was partially
supported by Oxfam. They had a tremendous community presence. Tons of people
were coming in and out for food and medical relief—they had a triage center
there. People were allowed to go in with a box and take whatever they needed
to start getting back on their feet. We knew these were the right people to give
the supplies to. They were really grateful. People were excited because we brought
donations from companies like Moo Shoes and Etnies America, a skateboarding company.
A lot of young folk were really excited and it was good to see them smiling.
We got the supplies and clothes out and we set off to get animals. The same logistical
problems began unfolding. There was a heavy military presence and when we went
into the city of Biloxi, gunfire broke out. I don’t think it was aimed
at us but it was definitely a hairy situation for us to try and drive through.
And there was a heavy sense of despair. I would say for as much as a mile inland
from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, everything was destroyed.
What are some of the other logistical problems you saw?
There were certain institutions, for example the Red Cross, just throwing out
clothing, literally by the tons. I saw a bulldozer push a pile of clothing twelve
or thirteen feet high down the street in mud and debris, and throw it into a
dumpster. We saw clothing strewn across parking lots and they would allow people
to pick through them. With Rita approaching, with the wind and the rain, these
piles of clothing should have been in boxes.
Did you visit any factory farms?
We first set out for Mississippi, knowing in advance of certain factory farms
and that any remaining structures not affected by floodwaters containing farmed
animals were probably there. Most of the wind devastation was in the state of
Mississippi, while the high floodwaters happened in Louisiana and urban areas.
Who was coordinating farmed animal rescue?
When we first decided to do this, we were in touch with individuals from PETA,
HSUS, Compassion Over Killing and Farm Sanctuary in the area. Right after the
hurricane hit, they brought a total of 1,700 chickens to farm sanctuaries across
the Northeast.
We found that a lot of factory farms had caught wind [no pun intended] that the
hurricane was going to be bad. The USDA was present at the shelter set up by
the HSUS and they told us that the farmers were told to get their animals out
of there if they wanted to sustain their income from those animals. So they trucked
a lot of the animals out, either to slaughterhouses or other facilities. When
we got down there a week and a half later, a lot of these places were either
a) empty, b) hit so hard that the buildings and the chickens were crushed, or
c) the chickens who weren’t crushed had since died of starvation or thirst.
It is eye-opening and alarming that the farmers had better warning to prepare
and get their animals out of there, unlike a lot of families in lower income
communities.
What did you see that you feel isn’t being covered?
When we entered Biloxi we got clearance to go through military check points into
areas where the media was not being allowed. No one would be able to quantify
the grief that was in the air and the inability of the hierarchy to address such
a situation.
There were nursing homes in the Biloxi area where you would need clearance just
to go towards them. The workers had evacuated and people were trapped in the
nursing homes, some of them unable to take care of themselves. Members of the
church wanted to feed them and they couldn’t because they couldn’t
get past check points. Luckily enough, the same church affiliated with Oxfam
came to an agreement with the Red Cross to take food past the military check
points to those in need. That was a scary example of the countless people who
were dying in front of us or were already dead because of bureaucracy.
We entered these communities and the smell was absolutely horrible. The smell
was of decaying bodies—it wasn’t sewage run-off or anything like
that. It was the smell of people dead inside houses, along with their dead animals.
We would go past a house and spray-painted on the side would be, ‘one dead
woman, two dead cats.’
There was definitely a sense of racism, sexism, a great deal of homophobia and
acts of desperation as well.
How did you see racism, sexism and homophobia manifested?
Well, race and class are closely inter-twined. In the case of New Orleans, Biloxi,
or Gulfport, it was low-income communities and communities of color that suffered
most. Although I arrived two weeks after the storm, there were curfews and restrictions
on movement. A general observation could be made that white people recover while
black people loot.
One Christian talk radio show that was on frequently was “Cross Talk,” which
drew a link between natural disasters and homosexuality and the occult. Basically
they blamed the large homosexual community in New Orleans and Louisiana for the
hurricane. This is a general sentiment that was picked up by mainstream media
down there that was loosely affiliated with the Christian Right. And a lot of
people were adhering to it—vehemently. Their anger was not just with the
inadequate response or people and loved ones in their community dying. It became, ‘we
need to blame somebody.’ ‘Why did this happen? Why did god do this
to us? Oh, it’s because of homosexuals.’ It was very scary.
In a Buddhist temple in Biloxi, they were holding free feedings, opening up their
space so people could sleep on the floors, and providing people with clothing.
People were accepting it, but still calling them “filthy Vietnamese.”
I would regularly see sexism. I would often hear men who were part of the relief
effort make statements like ‘we cant have “our” women smell/see
those dead bodies,’ statements that support ideas that women are possessions
or are weak. So racism, sexism and homophobia were all present.
What sort of obstacles did you encounter?
Everything was bureaucratic red tape—and that’s not to throw stones
at any national organization. We had to file paperwork, get photos taken, and
make sure vets saw each and every animal before we took them out. The last stop
on our trip was the shelter at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana,
to work with the Humane Society because they have a little more leeway with the
government when trying to rescue animals. We presented our nonprofit status,
vet references and after a day or two, we got clearance as a rescue group. Once
we became a rescue group, we were able to leave with animals.
It’s that slow creep at Gonzales and other shelters that prevents more
animals from being rescued. There is only so much space to foster and take care
of animals in these shelters and the space was entirely occupied. People weren’t
going out to rescue animals that are still alive, still starving and waiting
to be rescued.
What do you think is going to happen to all of the animals down there?
It’s inevitable that some animals will eventually end up in a shelter and
then be killed, solely because homes cannot be found fast enough. This is going
to happen with pit bulls in particular because of the large pit bull populace
in New Orleans and they are hard to adopt out. I can imagine hundreds of pit
bulls may be euthanized by the end of this ordeal.
There is an extraordinary disconnect between the needs of people, animals, the
environment, and a general sense of care for one another. There are a lot of
people who want to go down to do a charitable deed, but they are ostracizing
others and failing to be compassionate or empathetic to the needs of others.
The media had at times scripted, staged acts of kindness going on. So that even
though they were doing a good thing, their motivations were mixed—they
were capitalizing off of them. We would see it all the time with television spots
about the rescue of animals, yet that wasn’t how it was working. The animal
was either already rescued or was used as a prop to say, ‘Oh look at this
great work we’re doing, send us more donations.’ It was disheartening
that people were taking time out to do that and not taking the time to ensure
there were enough vets for the animals. It was disheartening to see 40-50 electric
golf carts with colorful banners with organizations’ names on them, big
tents, air conditioning, catering and yet, a lack of kevlar gloves for people
to handle cats or no vet techs at all in the cat wing. Simple things like that—things
you think people would think of first when dealing with rescue. Things like getting
proper materials to help animals, food, and logistical plans to make sure they
were well taken care of—before the RVs arrived, the cameras set up, the
media consultation—before anything else.
It was disheartening, but it wasn’t our job to combat that. Our job was
to help as many animals as we could. So we took as many pit bulls as we could
and a couple of small dogs. We took the undesirable cats, those that people wouldn’t
adopt—those with one eye or a temperament of shock from the whole ordeal.
We also took a 300-pound pot-bellied pig because we knew he would be hard to
adopt out. We took him to a farm sanctuary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
On a whole, the mission was a success for the animals we rescued. But there is
this looming feeling of regret, like we should have done more. So I’m currently
in the process of writing grants and asking for finances so individuals with
our group can go again.
What still needs to happen?
If we rely on government responses to disasters, there needs to be a sense of
accountability when government fails us. There needs to be a better and more
appropriate response and a better, logistical system to get people out of there.
There needs to be better systems for displaced animals, for their owners to find
them. I guess this was a learning experience for America and it may not be the
last experience like it, so we need to learn and do whatever we can and act appropriately
to make sure next time it won’t be this bad.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Our eyes were opened down there. When we went to Gonzales, I heard a conversation
where someone was looking for vegan food to eat and someone from one of the national
groups said back, “this is a disaster, you can’t have everything
you want.” The food provided was ham/cheese burgers, there were vegetarian
options but they were eaten first. My friend PJ, who was with me, said it best
in response: “Every day is a disaster for factory farmed animals.”
There was a tremendous disconnect that some of the rescuers had with the animals.
People came down to rescue cute and cuddly dogs or worse—to rescue breed-specific
dogs. It really bothered me when I heard groups saying, we’re only here
to rescue Chows or Pomeranians or whatever type of dog to bring back to their
breed-specific clubs. Some people feel so strongly about one animal but not another
because they are not as pretty or that animal happens to be on their plate every
other night for dinner. They don’t want to take the time to think about
them.
While doing rescue work I am not going to fight with someone about it because
my main objective is to get animals out of there and make their lives happy.
But now that I’m home, I can be slightly critical. This is really important:
animals in farms suffer every single day, it’s not just cats and dogs.
Just because you have a cat or dog and you build a social relationship with them,
it doesn’t mean those animals are any different than any other when it
comes to pain, suffering, feeling love for their offspring or will to survive.
Veganism is an idea that people need to pick up; it is very inclusive of the
basic ideas of why some of those rescuers were there. You can alleviate suffering
every single day in your life by not consuming animals.
To learn more about the Animal Defense League of Long Island and its Katrina
relief efforts, contact www.animaldefense.info or (631) 374-9096.
