8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MARCH 23-29, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com 831 At first light on Saturday, March 11, members of the SPCA Monterey County’s disaster response team were on the ground in Pajaro, wading into flooded chicken coops to retrieve backyard flocks or rescuing dogs from the floodwaters that filled the town after an upstream levee breached just after midnight. The town of around 2,900 people had been under an evacuation order since the previous day, but the water came all at once, leading to a hasty and chaotic evacuation for many. Calls rolled in from worried owners, telling the organization exactly where and how to find their beloved pets, or from concerned neighbors who heard barking. It wasn’t immediately possible to get to every animal, but as of Thursday, March 16, SPCA Vice President of Marketing and Communications Beth Brookhouser says the team has responded to every single animal they’ve received a call about, and expects they may find more as they continue to work in the area. That adds up—on Thursday, March 16, the SPCA was playing temporary home to 212 evacuated pets. Most are from Pajaro, though a few are from Chualar or other low-lying areas near the Salinas River that were hit with evacuation orders during the March storms. The majority of the animals—75 total—are chickens. Next comes parakeets (56), dogs (33), cats (19), canaries (eight), finches, cockatiels and doves (five of each), pigeons (two) plus one cockatoo, one macaw, one rabbit and one iguana. “Thankfully we have a large shelter,” Brookhouser says. The Hitchcock Road Animal Services shelter (jointly run by the county and city of Salinas) is providing extra space for all those chickens (with SPCA staff on hand over there to help with care). The Marin Humane Society took six adoptable pets up to Marin County to help make room—a show of mutual aid that the SPCA for Monterey County has and will return when disaster strikes elsewhere in California. And local volunteer fosters are helping by housing some animals as well. The number of pets in need of sheltering will change, of course. Dozens of animals have already been reunited with their families, while other people might not be able to house or care for their pets for a while still. “Unfortunately, we have been through this a lot between fires and floods in our community,” Brookhouser says. “We have gotten very good at being able to reunite pets with their families following disasters. We will work with each individual family for their needs and their pets’ needs to reunite them all.” In addition to sheltering pets who cannot go home yet, the SPCA is providing free pet food and supplies to flood evacuation centers and anyone else who needs it. For those not in the path of floodwaters who wish to help, the SPCA is accepting monetary donations as well as donations of pet food and towels for keeping rescued animals clean, dry and fed. The organization is also asking all pet owners to create a disaster preparedness plan that includes their pets and livestock. After the fact it’s always hard to say why, exactly, certain animals get left behind in an evacuation, Brookhouser says. “I think some people felt that this could never happen, so when they were woken in the middle of the night they just had to leave immediately and did not have time to get all their pets,” she offers. “It’s possible that other people thought it would just be shortterm—they left food for their pets thinking they would be gone for a couple of days.” As those days stretched out to 10 as of March 20, and even if the animals weren’t at immediate risk from the flooding, they began to need food and fresh water. “We want people who are reading about this to use it as inspiration to prepare for a disaster,” Brookhouser says. On its website, the SPCA offers disaster preparedness resources and tips for what to include in an emergency response kit for any type of pet— from the family dog to horses and fish. “This could happen to any of us, and we want people to be prepared.” Safe and Dry The SPCA has been hard at work rescuing and sheltering pets from the Pajaro flooding. By Tajha Chappellet-Lanier An SPCA disaster response team with chickens from a flooded Pajaro home. Of the 212 animals rescued as of March 16, 75 were chickens, the most common rescued animal. “Thankfully we have a large shelter.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE C/O SPCA FOR MONTEREY COUNTY
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