Fires Put Thousands of Animals In Peril

Oct. 23, 2007 — -- It's one thing to evacuate a household pet, it's another to wrangle a 1,000-pound horse.

Three-time Olympic bronze medalist Gunther Seidel fled north to Oaks Blenheim Show Grounds, an hour's drive north of San Diego, where his prized show horses would be safe from the fires raging through Southern California. The horses are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each, but to him they're priceless.

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"It was like a war zone down there," Seidel said.

This time of year, Oaks Blenheim is usually completely empty. Now, it's nearly filled to capacity with roughly 700 evacuated animals.

At a shelter at Mira Mesa High School, families are sticking together -- not just parents and kids, but every member of the family … four-legged, winged, or otherwise.

While the human members of the families at this shelter escaped intact, Tiffany Knapp lost her beloved English bulldog Bacon. She believes his lungs gave out because of all the smoke.

For many people put out of house and home, keeping their pets with them can be one of the few comforts they'll find in what is an incredibly trying time.

Dan DeSousa, from the San Diego County Department of Animal Services, says that overall, things are going smoothly.

San Diego's rapid response to rescue animals is due, in part, to the tragic images Americans witnessed in the aftermath of Huricane Katrina, when residents were told to leave their pets behind.

That disaster led directly to new a law that requires states to include pets in their disaster planning. A post-Katrina poll showed that 61 percent of pet owners refused to evacuate without their pets.

"We learned from Katrina that we have to keep people and animals together," said Dr. Marc Goldstein, the president of the San Diego Humane Society. "Sometimes people are so worried about being separated from their pets that they don't do the right thing."

That's why families in this California disaster are allowed to bring their feathered friends and other pets to stadium shelters, like Qualcomm Stadium.

Maria and her Jessica decided to sleep in a tent at a shelter, rather than be separated from their 8-month-old Doberman puppy.

At the San Diego Zoo, home to the world famous baby panda born this summer, all is well. But the zoo's Wild Animal Park, 40 miles from downtown, is in the heart of the fire territory. Zoo workers evacuated endangered animals like the California condor and the African cheetah, but the rest of their animals — giraffes, elephants, rhinos — remain at the park in "fire protected" habitats -- areas kept safe by the park's fire break and irrigated areas. Zoo spokeswoman Yadira Galindo told The Associated Press that the animals are "alert but not showing any concerned behavior." The zoo also includes watering holes that will offer animals additional refuge should conditions worsen.