Calif. Wildfires Put Thousands of Animals in Peril

Oct. 24, 2007 — -- Driving southbound on Interstate 5, it's easy to think you've made abad choice of direction. The beaming sun and it's bright bluebackground disappear at the San Diego County line, replaced by asky of monotone gray and the unmistakable smell of ash. Road signswarn of a county on fire. Rush hour is unusually quiet — except it seems forthe horse trailers.

"You can't fit a horse in the back seat of your car and there's no wayany owner's going to leave them to burn," said Mark Hoekstra, anEscondido native who was told to evacuate his home early Mondaymorning. "We moved 12 horses to Rancho dos Palmas [an equine boardinghouse] yesterday and four so far this morning."

Hoekstra and his wife are one of two-dozen families who have set uphome in a Wal-Mart parking lot 10 miles east of the Witch Creek fire,which covers more than 145,000 acres. Their trailers lay dormant, buthooked up to pickups should another call for help comes their way.

"So many people live in the hills right by trails that they don'tusually need to have their own trailers," Hoekstra said. "There's anetwork of friends with trailers and we help anyone who needs itwhether we know them or not."

With as many as 300,000 horses living in the county, the job oftransporting the horses to safety cannot be left to volunteers alone.

The bustling Carson Park is where the authorities have set up theirvarious command centers. While sleeping firefighters waited for thewinds to relent, there was no rest for the various animal-rescueorganizations housed at the back of the compound.

"We just got down to San Diego County late last night after working inMalibu and it's been nonstop," said Jeff Blodgett, informationofficer for the LA branch of the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals, (SPCALA) They run a animal rescue unit called the Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) specially trained to mount large scale animal rescues.

"We generallydeal with household pets, but we've got two trailers so [we] can rescue guyslike these," Blodgett said as he pointed at two horses, one gray, theother chestnut that had been rescued earlier that morning. Theirowner was on vacation and called animal control upon hearing of thefires.

Having fought the infamous Cedar fires of 2003 and rehoused hundreds of animals from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the 22-strong DART team is wellversed in completing what it begins. The next step was to find thetwo horses a place to stay; the San Diego Animal Shelter in Carlsbadhad space. The 30-minute drive was simple, but Blodgett wasconcerned about what would happen when it came time to unload. Thegray had proved a real handful earlier in the day.

With three potbellied pigs watching intently, the rear door of thetrailer was opened and the two horses made their way out withsurprising serenity.

"That went a lot smoother than I was expecting," said the SPCALA'sArlene Hall, a registered veterinary technician.

With so many horses requiring relocation, San Diego County officialsadmitted that finding places to put them was something of a problem.

"We've got two teams of mounted officers working around the clock withthe animal services, but once we complete a rescue we then need totrailer them to a safe place," Officer Bob Hovey of the San DiegoPolice Department told ABC News. "But finding that safe place is notthe easiest thing."

The 2,400 stalls at Del Mar Fairgrounds were full by Monday morning,according to the San Diego Union Triune. The county-operated LakesideRodeo had space available but was filling up fast as was the GalwayDowns Training Center in Temecula.

For horse owners who have avoided the fire but may yet fallvictim to the unpredictable devil winds, there are people like SandieTaylor.

"We had eight horses dropped off Monday morning, 20 more at midnightand six more today [Tuesday]," said Taylor, who runs the Animals Firstpet resort. "It's like the eye of the storm here with none of thecarnage that's down the road and we can take another 40 horses ifneeds be."

With 10 acres of land and the equipment to construct several morecorrals, Taylor certainly appeared to make good on her claim. However, stocksof hay were running low as were buckets for food and water and Taylorsaid that help from businesses would be welcome to remedy thisshortfall.

Having slept just three hours Monday night, Taylor could also welcomea proper night's rest. However, the combination of a care-givingpersonality and a county enduring what many say are the worse fires inits history mean it could be some time until she gets one.