1 Companion Animals

Let us not, however, fl atter ourselves overmuch on

account of our human victories over nature. For each

such victory nature takes its revenge on us.

FRIEDRICH ENGELS, DIALECTICS OF NATURE (1883)

A

s residents of New Orleans prepared for the Hurricane Gus-

tav evacuation in August 2008, the city’s Offi ces of Emer-

gency Preparedness provided buses to take residents without

transportation to Red Cross shelters. Additional shelters were ready

to accommodate their companion animals, and trucks were on hand

to transport them. Evacuees received wristbands with identifi cation

numbers that matched those on collars placed on their animals. The

buses took human evacuees to a shelter in Shreveport, near the Lou-

isiana State Fairgrounds, which was transformed into what became

known as the Mega Shelter for the region’s animals. The transporta-

tion and identifi cation systems, and the shelters for people and ani-

mals in proximity, were the results of lessons learned in Hurricane

Katrina. But in September, when Hurricane Ike struck Galveston

Island, Texas, the situation was dramatically different. Around half

of the island’s residents left their animals behind when they evacu-

ated, despite instructions to take their animals with them. The gov-

ernor had made it possible for evacuees to take their animals on

public transportation. Even so, rescuers found more than eight hun-

dred abandoned animals on Galveston Island, including many tied