Based on her experience in the 2007 floods,Tina Coleman fiqured she'd better see what provisions had been made for people who had to evacuate to Red Cross shelters with pets. Tina contacted the Westchester County Animal Response Team-a team that had been trained to respond to disaster situations.
When Tina heard that Westcart was on "standby" waiting for someone to call them, she went to the New Rochelle & Mamaroneck Police Departments and to the Red Cross emergency shelters at Albert Leonard Middle School and Mamaroneck High School.
Tina soon learned that no pets would be allowed. In fact, the staff at Albert Leonard had made up a sign with all the "no no"s" and NO pets allowed was right up there on the list. Nobody on site had ever heard of Westcart or knew that there was anyone they could call when an evacuee came in with pets.
Tina and her husband they took in 6 pets much to the relief of the owners who found themselves having to go to an evacuation shelter that would have made it clear no pets would be admitted. They were allowed to stand in a busy hallway to wait for the "animal people".
And where was Westcart?
Throughout the weekend its director Steven Immerblum DVM talked about "home rule" and being on standby and having a trailer chock full of animal equipment and supplies but the call apparently never came from the right place and Tina's calls for help didn't count. When Rob Astorino announced on TV that Westchester Emergency management shelters were accepting pets we tried to alert him that he was being misinformed. His office's response was that it was under control-evacuees with pets were being held in secluded areas until the animal people came. Of course they were! That was Tina and Bill! Nobody at the New Rochelle Animal Shelter ever got any instructions about evacuees with pets. And when Tina ran into Ed Merians, head of Mamaroneck Red Cross shelter he was sure appreciative that Tina and Bill had stepped forward.
Now with the emergency over and while we point our finger at anyone who refuses to evacuate without their pets or who leaves them behind, we somehow can not get our local powers-that-be to realize that federal and state law MANDATE that real provisions be made for the rescue and care of evacuee's pets.
Source: New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound
