Dogs victimized by Katrina arrive in Mass., await new homes

A truck carrying some of Hurricane Katrina's smallest victims arrived in Massachusetts yesterday morning. Thirty-nine dogs from storm-ravaged Monroe, La., are now at the Animal Rescue League's shelter in Pembroke, where state officials and animal welfare workers have started to clean up and identify them.

The dogs range in size from diminutive Chihuahuas to brawny pit bulls, but all shared a 36-hour, rain-slowed trip from an emergency shelter in Louisiana to the Pembroke facility, where the truck pulled in about 10:30 a.m. Teams of veterinarians and others are now nursing the dogs back to health and preparing them to be placed in local homes while officials search for their owners.

Since most of the dogs came in yesterday without any identification, pairing them with their proper owners will be difficult, said Scott Giacoppo, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

For now, they will undergo medical evaluations and stay in separate cages, he said. The Massachusetts Animal Coalition, the group working to match the dogs up with temporary homes, hopes to start placing them within the week, but it could be longer depending on their physical condition. Some arrived with minor wounds and most were malnourished, Giacoppo said.

''Whatever ailments they might have, we'll bring them back to good health," he said.

After the dogs were taken off the truck, they were brought into the shelter by animal handlers wearing biosafety suits, examined by a veterinarian, washed in a solution that prevents ringworm, searched for an identifying microchip, and then examined again. Their cages at the shelter extend outdoors, a feature Giacoppo called a ''patio for dogs."

Anne Lindsay, executive director of the Massachusetts Animal Coalition, coordinated the process. The state Department of Agricultural Resources had asked her group to find temporary homes for displaced pets before, she said, but never on this scale. She started planning to bring hurricane-affected animals to Massachusetts the day Katrina made landfall.

''It's been a long six weeks planning this," Lindsay said. She also said that the dogs' chances of being reunited with their owners are probably slim. ''But we're going to try, really try."

What her organization and the others involved in bringing the pets to Massachusetts need now is money to pay for the trip from Louisiana, food and medicine for the dogs, and other equipment and personnel costs. The New Balance Foundation, the charitable arm of the Brighton athletic shoe company, donated $4,000.

In spite of this financial challenge, Lindsay and others at Pembroke yesterday said this is a gratifying and emotional project. Lindsay, who owns five dogs, said seeing the rescued pets come off the truck was very moving.

As for the dogs? ''Many of them are wagging their tails. They have a new lease on life," she said.