HSUS team helps to rescue dogs in northeast Louisiana

By Kitty Block

By on September 25, 2023 with 0 Comments

Last week, members of our Animal Rescue Team assisted law enforcement authorities with the rescue of more than 20 dogs and puppies from an alleged neglect situation at a residential property in Vidalia, in northeast Louisiana along the Mississippi River.

This situation was one of many our Animal Rescue Team has responded to this year. We deploy at the request of and in collaboration with local organizations and law enforcement agencies. Local groups are typically the first call for citizens concerned about cruelty or neglect, and the work done by animal welfare groups around the country to intervene and assist has saved countless animal lives.

However, there are also cases—ranging from response to disasters to puppy mill investigations to animal fighting cases—where smaller local groups and law enforcement agencies can use backup and support. In such instances, we are honored to step in to help. For that reason, we hire and train animal rescue personnel, who are ready to work alongside local societies and law enforcement entities trying to keep animals safe.

In Vidalia, our team came to the scene at the request of the Vidalia Police Department and the 7th Judicial District of Concordia Parish. Law enforcement officers served a search and seizure warrant to enter the property. The owner had failed to address problems and issues identified by law enforcement officials after community residents raised concerns about the welfare of animals on the property, and efforts to assist with advice and pet supplies had not resolved them, either.

An investigator with the Vidalia Police Department holds one of the puppies rescued. Meredith Lee/The HSUS

Our responders found dogs scattered all around a yard strewn with debris and feces. Many of the dogs were tethered by chains and lacked adequate access to decent food and shelter. Six of them were fenced inside a small pen with nothing but two small dog houses and a ragged tarp for cover.

Several dogs watched responders with cautious eyes as they began removing animals. Meredith Lee/The HSUS

The dogs were itching and scratching themselves constantly, and many had long, overgrown nails and serious skin conditions. Most of the dogs had their ribs showing, a condition especially evident in the puppies.

Most of the puppies were severely underweight with fleas visibly crawling across their bodies. Meredith Lee/The HSUS

A veterinarian who examined the dogs noted that many of them were underweight and heavily infested with fleas, which responders could readily see moving all over the animals’ bodies.

The dogs are currently at an undisclosed location where they continue to receive veterinary attention and care.

Whether it involves 20 dogs or 4,000, a rescue deployment is always a difficult experience for staff responders and for local humane and law enforcement authorities. In the course of their work, they deploy to grim situations worse than anything the rest of us could imagine, and they find animals in conditions that none of us would ever wish to see. And the clock is ticking the whole time as they assess the animals’ situation, address any urgent injuries or concerns, and transport them to proper facilities for treatment and care. On top of that, responders must maintain their professional demeanor and honor their training, as the properties involved are treated as potential crime scenes by law enforcement officials.

With our presence in states across the country, we are no strangers to emergency response and to animal welfare concerns. And we stay committed to the communities in which we’ve responded, frequently following up with training, infrastructure support and other services.

Louisiana is one of the strongest examples of such commitment, because in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the devastating 2005 storm there, we made substantial investments to support animal welfare infrastructure in the Gulf Coast states.

In the years immediately following that historic disaster, we provided more than $8 million in recovery and reconstruction grants to 45 local organizations and committed $5.8 million to pet health and overpopulation initiatives. We donated more than $2 million to fund shelter medicine programs at the veterinary schools of Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University, programs which continue to train veterinarians for service in Gulf Coast communities. We generated more than a quarter of a billion dollars in free advertising to promote the work of local shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi, in cooperation with Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council. We also paid for the construction of America’s first prison-based animal shelter at the Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana. Today, the PenPals shelter takes in and rehomes animals to families in several Louisiana parishes. Just as importantly, as an auxiliary facility, it plays a critical role in statewide response to animal-related disasters and emergencies.

Such investments, significant as they are, cannot eliminate animal cruelty and neglect so long as there are people who willfully neglect their basic responsibilities to animals in their care. Even as we look to the root causes of animal cruelty and focus our best efforts on stopping it through public policy, corporate reform, and education and training, we never forget about the animals suffering right now in situations like the one in Vidalia. They are just as dependent on our mercy and energy as any animals on earth, and when we can make a difference for them, we’ll always be ready to do so.

New star-studded push for the Humane Cosmetics Act on Capitol Hill

By on September 21, 2023 with 1 Comment
New star-studded push for the Humane Cosmetics Act on Capitol Hill

We took to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a full day of events in support of the Humane Cosmetics Act, H.R. 5399, a bill to end animal-based cosmetics testing in the U.S, usher in a new era of cutting-edge testing . . . 

Read More

Animals need humane-minded voters to act on their behalf. Register now.

By on September 19, 2023 with 2 Comments
Animals need humane-minded voters to act on their behalf. Register now.

In the U.S., today is National Voter Registration Day, which is a chance to recognize and celebrate the potential of our collective role and influence as voters. Now more than ever, our nation needs compassionate, courageous legislators to act in support of animals and to . . . 

Read More

The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ finally does the greatest thing for animals

By on September 18, 2023 with 11 Comments
The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ finally does the greatest thing for animals

After being shuttered for six years because of flagging ticket sales and financial troubles, a new kind of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will kick off a nationwide circus tour this month, this time without a single animal caged, held captive and forced . . . 

Read More

Fur is disappearing from fashion and design culture amid concerns for animals and the environment

By on September 15, 2023 with 7 Comments
Fur is disappearing from fashion and design culture amid concerns for animals and the environment

On the runways at the just-ended New York Fashion Week, there was pink tulle and tattered denim, black mesh and purple fringe, handmade kente cloth and 3D-printed metallic apparel. The Area brand used the opportunity to debut its faux fur gowns with imitation bones and . . . 

Read More

Brutal killing of African elephant highlights need to end trophy hunting

By on September 13, 2023 with 5 Comments
Brutal killing of African elephant highlights need to end trophy hunting

We have just learned about a heartless and illegal hunt that took the life of a male elephant in South Africa’s Limpopo province earlier this month. Here’s what we know at this point: The hunting party consisted of a trophy hunting client, a hunting guide, . . . 

Read More

Ingenious idea aims to decrease human conflict with endangered elephants

By on September 11, 2023 with 2 Comments
Ingenious idea aims to decrease human conflict with endangered elephants

A new way of seeing elephants could help save their lives. That’s the idea behind an innovative pilot project in Dong Nai by Humane Society International and the Viet Nam government that uses images of elephant families from motion-triggered camera traps to catalogue the unique . . . 

Read More

Helping hundreds of families and their animals after Hurricane Idalia

By on September 7, 2023 with 1 Comment
Helping hundreds of families and their animals after Hurricane Idalia

When we learned that Hurricane Idalia would likely make landfall, we identified the best means for us to help care for animals in a potential crisis and support the people who care about them. Fighting the big fights for animals sometimes means exactly this: Being . . . 

Read More

Annual ‘celebration’ highlights the need to stop cruelty to horses

By on September 6, 2023 with 14 Comments
Annual ‘celebration’ highlights the need to stop cruelty to horses

Last week, members of the Humane Society of the United States’ Equine Protection team traveled to Tennessee to evaluate the condition of the horses at the 85th annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. In the weeks leading up to the show, we posted billboards in . . . 

Read More

Mistreated exotic animals highlight the need for ‘Better CARE’ law

By on August 31, 2023 with 2 Comments
Mistreated exotic animals highlight the need for ‘Better CARE’ law

The mistreatment of animals is a matter of injustice, and so it’s only fitting that the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to stop cruelty at Even Keel Exotics in Temperance, Michigan. The DOJ’s recent resolution of a complaint against the facility’s owner, animal dealer . . . 

Read More

Scientist advancing alternatives to animal experiments honored with HSUS/HSI award  

By on August 30, 2023 with 0 Comments
Scientist advancing alternatives to animal experiments honored with HSUS/HSI award  

This week, we presented the Russell & Burch Award to Dr. Donald Ingber, a professor at Harvard University and the founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. Dr. Ingber is one of the pioneers behind the development of organ-on-a-chip technology, . . . 

Read More

EATS Act could devour animal welfare laws and must be stopped

By on August 29, 2023 with 7 Comments
EATS Act could devour animal welfare laws and must be stopped

Americans are taking a stand against one of the gravest assaults on animal welfare, unfolding right now in the U.S. Congress, where a radical faction of the pork industry is pushing to include the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act (H.R. 4417/S. 2019) in the . . . 

Read More

Top