Wayne Pacelle Left Quotations

People are frantically calling and telling us their cat is on the third floor of an apartment in New Orleans, or their horses were left in a pasture.

We have left out tens of thousands of pounds of food and water to extend their lives.

We were on the ground Tuesday, the day after the hurricane hit, but we were excluded from going in by state and federal authorities for the first several days. We've received 2,000 e-mails and phone calls from people who evacuated from New Orleans, who left animals in their homes and are pleading with us to rescue them. That's just in New Orleans. It doesn't count surrounding areas.

We alone at the Humane Society of the United States, through our 1-800 number, logged 1,500 calls from people who lived in New Orleans and said they left their pets there,

They simply misjudged how long they'd be gone. They left food for a couple of days, and now of course, people won't be able to enter for months.

The evacuation of New Orleans doomed these animals to a fate of dehydration and starvation. We rescued people, but we left their pets behind to die. Amazingly, we are finding more alive every day, but after three weeks we are hitting the critical hour.

The Humane Society of the United States has planned and trained for this sort of catastrophe for years, ... We issued warnings asking people to evacuate with their pets since we've seen what happens when animals are left behind. The tragedy is that so many people apparently could not leave in time. The human and animal toll is expected to be enormous.

Animals for the most part just need to be left alone.