Time for heroics over, time for caretaking & recovery begins
LOS ANGELES, California––Animal rescue operations continue throughout the Los Angeles area, with the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, believed to be the two most costly in California history, both still burning to the north and east.
The Palisades Fire at latest report from Cal Fire, the state fire agency, is still just 22% contained; the Eaton Fire is 55% contained.
Multiple smaller fires erupting within “hell week” for the northern and eastern Los Angeles suburbs have been extinguished or contained, though. Despite continued hazardous dry winds and drought, the animal rescue focus has shifted from evacuation to recovery.
At least 27 human dead have been identified. As many as 35 people are missing.
The pet animal toll, among dogs, cats, birds, horses, and others is already known to be many times higher, even though most evacuees appear to have taken their animals with them if there was any way to cram them into cars in what was often only minutes to escape towering fast-moving flames that leaped roads with the ease and speed of a “jumps” racehorse.
“Four very difficult words”
Dave Pauli, formerly a longtime disaster relief coordinator for the Humane Society of the U.S., and now, post-retirement, sponsored by Greater Good Charities of Seattle, flew in from Montana on January 14, 2024 to lend a hand.
Posted Pauli to his legion of Facebook followers, “’We lost our house.’ Four very difficult words. I met three different couples who shared that phrase with me today, and each of them were walking or clutching their canine family member.”
Many of Pauli’s followers served with him in previous disaster relief missions, from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 through Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the deadly Lahaina fire in August 2023. No one is known to have participated in animal rescue in the aftermath of more disasters.
“It struck me,” Pauli said, “that all three used the term ‘lost house’ rather than ‘lost home’ ––because an important part of their home was on their lap or leashed by their side.
(Facebook photo)
“Preparing to comfort and support”
“The doggie do collection box is just outside my hotel room,” Pauli continued, “overflowing as evacuees struggle to get their dogs and themselves some exercise!
“My heart will become weighed down,” Pauli predicted, “as I spend tomorrow morning distributing badly needed human and animal supplies. My days look like they will be half material support and half networking and planning for the larger wildlife response.
“These fires, just like the Maui event, leveled neighborhoods and impacted people of all economic and social levels. I am preparing myself to comfort and support hundreds of human and animal wildfire victims every day!”
(Kalyna Fedorowycz photo)
Rode 14 miles to safety
Among the many evacuation war stories surfacing, with the most urgent part of the crisis having passed, Pegasus Horse Show founder Jen Tankel posted a photo to social media captioned, “16 year old Kalyna Fedorowycz was helping to evacuate horses out of Topanga, but one of the horses,” identified by others as Sovereignty, ” was too terrified to load into the trailer. Rather than leaving the horse behind, she jumped on and rode (and led) the horse 14 miles to safety.”
“The fires came so quickly in some areas that owners abandoned hopes of getting frightened horses into trailers, opting instead to walk them out along the steep roads,” reported Gabrielle Canon for The Guardian. “One man shared a now viral video escorting his horses and small donkeys through burning the mountains by motorbike, shortly before his ranch was reduced to rubble. Others were tragically left behind.”
Santa Monica rescuer Austin Muhs recalled to Canon that, “The very first night there was a call for 40 horses,” left in corrals. “32 of them perished,” Muhs said. “By the time we got there it was too late.”
“Convoy of incredible people”
Rescuer Brady Heiser described to Canon “terrifying moments navigating inflamed trees on the roads, and challenges convincing animals to trust him when time was of the essence.
But, Heiser added, “As fast as you could get trailers in there, they were loaded and gone. It was a convoy of incredible people,” evacuating animals “from mini highland cows to an enormous 175-pound pig named Fancypants,” Canon summarized.
Brittany “Cole” Bush, founder of Shepherdess Land & Livestock, an Ojai Valley company that deploys grazing animals for brush-clearing, told Canon that, as Canon paraphrased, “Her phone was ringing off the hook after she posted on social media offering her trailers and herding expertise.”
Sheep & ducks
Bush’s first mission was evacuating “a herd of sheep who had spent little time around people, on remote hillsides.
“Bit by bit, they countered the chaos with calm and were able to lure the animals in,” Canon wrote. “A more hastened round-up of some ducks, housed in a crate and put in the back seat of the truck, and they were on their way out.”
Added Bush, to Canon a few days later, “This is the cleanup. Right now we are coordinating how to get animals from evacuation centers back home, or if they can’t go home, where can we place them. That’s the focus, as well as providing major resources for these shelters,” such as “feed and hauling.”
15 dogs & two cats in a Prius
Arianna Buturovic “stuffed 15 dogs and two cats in a black Prius,” she told Hallie Golden and Leslie Ambriz of Associated Press.
“But she still had nine more dogs and a pig to evacuate,” Golden and Ambriz continued, “so she flagged down some 18-year-olds with a truck who agreed to take them to a shelter. She couldn’t bring two ponies with her, but she left the corral open so they could escape if needed.”
“That’s how we evacuated almost 30 animals,” she said. “It was crazy.”
Continued Golden and Ambriz, “Julia Bagan, who is part of a Facebook group called Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation, found five horses locked in their stalls in Altadena one day after the fire. The horses huddled in a small exterior pen attached to the stalls, but couldn’t entirely escape the flames.
Black mare had half a chance
“By the time a neighbor called for help and firefighters used bolt cutters to free them, one of the horses was badly hurt, Bagan said.
“She drove through the remnants of the fire to rescue them as damaged power lines sparked overhead. She described it as ‘the most crazy, dangerous’ evacuation she’s had yet. Almost all the houses in the area had burned when she pulled up.
“The injured horse, a 3-year-old black mare she decided to name after the movie Flicka, had leg burns. Her halter burned off, along with her tail and mane. The embers gave her eyes ulcers.
“A veterinarian at an emergency equine hospital gave the horse 50-50 odds of surviving.”
“More injured animals coming in”
“Dozens of volunteers are helping to care for about 400 horses and donkeys at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center,” reported Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine for Reuters.
“We are now seeing more injured animals coming in,” Pasadena Humane Society president Dia DuVernet told them.
“We’re also starting to see people who brought their animals for what we thought would be temporary shelter, but they don’t have homes to go back to, and so it’s turning into a longer-term sheltering situation.”
Wrote Chmielewski and Richwine, “The Pasadena Humane Society has entered a new phase of this disaster response, search rescue and recovery, DuVernet said. “Pasadena Humane is prioritizing calls to help live animals in the burn zones –– including eight injured peacocks.”
Prioritizing reports of animals seen alive
Elaborated Michelle Watson for CNN, “Pasadena Humane,” after taking in 610 animals from evacuees and found at large in the fire zones, “has been feeding pets trapped in houses, assisted by animal control officers who have specialized fire training.”
“We are logging every report of animals left behind and dispatching search and rescue teams as quickly as possible in areas that are safe to enter,” Pasadena Humane Society public relations manager Kevin McManus told Watson.
“We are prioritizing reports of animals seen alive in the area and in urgent need of medical attention, as well as cases where owners have informed us they were forced to leave their pets behind. Once all live animal reports have been addressed, our focus will shift to responding to reports of deceased animals.”
A donkey feeling down
Suzanne Cassel of Topanga evacuated to a temporary rescue shelter at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Chmielewski and Richwine resumed, “with her two horses, a donkey named Oscar Nelson, four dogs and two cats.”
Two ponies and “two semi-feral dogs she fed” could not be found, Chmielewski and Richwine said
“Her horses are together in the shelter, while the dogs and cats are staying in the horse trailer,” Chmielewski and Richwine continued.
“Her donkey, though, was feeling down in a stall by himself,” so Cassell “went inside and sat in the stall with him for half an hour, and he liked that,” Chmielewski and Richwine reported, “because nobody likes to be alone when you’re a herd animal.”
A miracle through networking
Some animal owners were away when fires broke out and could not get back in time to save the animals. But at least one such case had a miraculous ending, reported Simrin Singh for CBC News.
“Andrea Pasinetti was in San Francisco for work and his wife, Sixuan, was overseas when the Palisades Fire broke out,” Singh narrated. “Their dogsitter was stuck in the roads leading to their block, leaving the Pasinettis’ three dogs waiting at home as the flames began ravaging their street.
“Pasinetti said he jumped on a flight to Los Angeles, hoping to make it home in time to get Alma, Archie and Hugo out of danger.”
Meanwhile, “Sixuan saw CBS News’ Jonathan Vigliotti reporting from Palisades Charter High School, which was a short distance from their residence.”
Rapidly networking through social media, Sixuan reached CBS News producer Christian Duran, who was working with Vigliotti, and the two of them freed the dogs from the burning home.
Pasinetti arrived in time to retrieve them.
Took dog, left Olympic medals
Often animals were all that evacuees were able to take.
Three-time U.S. Olympic swimmer and medalist Gary Hall Jr., 50, left his five gold, three silver and two bronze medals behind when he fled his Pacific Palisades home, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, but took his dog, the insulin he uses to treat his diabetes, a painting of his grandfather, and a religious artifact.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach pledged to send Hall a new set of medals.
(Luxe Homecare)
Fatality refused to leave her pets
At least one of the human fatalities died because she refused to leave her pets.
Reported CNN, “Annette Rossilli, 85, insisted on staying in her Pacific Palisades home with her dog Greetly, her canary Pepper, her two parrots and her turtle, according to Luxe Homecare, the company that provided in-home care for her three days a week.
“A caregiver later offered to pick Rossilli up, even though it was her day off, Fay Vahdani, Luxe Homecare president, said. Neighbors tried to convince her to evacuate, but Rossilli refused to leave.”
Rossilli apparently did try to leave with her animals, but too late.
“Firefighters found Rossilli’s body in her car, according to Vahdani and relatives of the victim,” CNN said.
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