Charley leaves animals in need

PUNTA GORDA —  Animal rescue after Hurricane Charley hasn’t been a matter of just helping storm victims with their dogs and cats. Far from it.

Since teams of animal-disaster specialists began arriving here Sunday, they have had their hands full with calls involving lions, goats, parrots and macaws, a days-old squirrel, baby raccoons, cows, horses, a ferret, llamas and cobras.

“A to Z,” said Laura Bevan, director of The Humane Society’s southeast regional office in Tallahassee. “If we haven’t seen it yet, we’ll probably see it before we leave.”

That’s on top of the dozens of dogs and cats that have been brought in for care or a temporary home. Hundreds of dogs and cats that have been found since Charley hit have been sent to shelters in counties outside the disaster area and, if not reunited with their owners, will be put up for adoption.

Bevan is among about 100 people taking part in the animal emergency response, which includes local, state and federal help. People are driving through neighborhoods trying to find pet owners in need, delivering pet food, making rescue calls, providing emergency veterinary and kennel services and setting up three stations to take in and provide care for animals.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has even brought in 35 veterinarians from as far away as Ohio, Utah, Oklahoma and elsewhere to treat animals in the 25 counties declared federal disaster areas.

At a compound set up next to a baseball field, Lloyd Brown held up one of two month-old raccoons rescued after Charley hit and fed it through a syringe.

When he finished feeding the wild animals rescued after the hurricane, a group that also includes two small doves, Brown jumped in his truck to respond to a call seeking help for dozens of birds.

He arrived at the home of Rich Naegeli, who was the first zoo director at Busch Gardens in Tampa. He found 60 exotic birds, from parrots and macaws to a pair of rare Australian slender-bill corellas -- beautiful white birds with orange necks.

Naegeli and his wife, Dolly, didn’t want the animals removed from their property on the far east edge of Charlotte County, but they needed help. Their electricity has been out for four days and they can’t pump water from their well for the animals -- or for themselves and their daughter and grandson.

Brown tries and fails to hook up a roaring generator to the water pump as the parrots and macaws screech loudly. He offers advice on finding an electrician.

“If you don’t get the pump working, let us know and we’ll get you water,” Brown says before leaving.

Among the other calls animal workers have received were reports of 15 goats wandering near U.S. 17. Two were caught. Officials also chased down two lions that were roaming the same highway.