ST. CROIX, Virgin Islands – Hundreds of homeless dogs, cats and other four-footed hurricane survivors are finding new homes and comfort thanks to a joint initiative among territorial, federal and nongovernmental partners.
Teams from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) are working with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture at an emergency animal shelter established shortly after Hurricane Maria at the agriculture department’s facility on St. Croix.
With support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the ASPCA teams have provided comfort and medical care to more than 450 dogs, nearly a dozen cats, and several large animals including horses, pigs and a donkey.
Meanwhile, thanks to the nonprofit group Cloud Nine Rescue Flights, nearly 100 homeless dogs have been carefully crated and transported to shelters in New York and Florida, where many have found new families.
Following a disaster familiar scents and landmarks may be altered and many household pets become confused and lost. The visiting ASPCA animal control teams pick up domestic animals that appear lost or homeless, and attempt to locate their owners. The unclaimed pets are made available for adoption. As part of their disaster response efforts, the ASPCA teams also collect animals that could present a risk to themselves or the public.
The ASPCA shelter on St. Croix will remain open until December 31, when all remaining small animals will be transported to the mainland for adoption. Before that date animal lovers on St. Croix are welcome to visit the shelter to adopt a new pet. It is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at the Department of Agriculture, #1 Estate Lower Love, Kingshill, St. Croix.
For more information and photographs about the efforts by ASPCA and Cloud Nine Rescue Flights to find homes for animals displaced by Hurricane Maria on St. Croix, visit www.aspca.org/news/aspca-and-cloud-nine-rescue-flights-partner-fly-animals-displaced-hurricane-maria.
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Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status. If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, call FEMA toll-free at 800-621-3362 (voice, 711/VRS - Video Relay Service)(TTY: 800-462-7585). Multilingual operators are available (press 2 for Spanish).
FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
For official information on the recovery effort following the hurricanes, please visit www.informusvi.com or www.usviupdate.com. Follow us on social media at twitter.com/femaregion2 and www.facebook.com/FEMAUSVirginIslands.
To donate or volunteer, contact the voluntary or charitable organization of your choice through the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) at www.nvoad.org. For those who wish to help, cash donations offer voluntary agencies the most flexibility in obtaining the most-needed resources and pumps money into the local economy to help businesses recover. The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands also has the “Fund for the Virgin Islands” at www.USVIrecovery.org.