Californians scrambled to evacuate dogs, cats, horses, even pigs as wildfires closed in on Los Angeles. Shelters are overwhelmed with displaced animals.
Arianna Buturovic maintained a careful watch on distant smoke from the animal rescue facility she operates outside Los Angeles for dogs at risk of being euthanized. Within a few hours, nearby mountains were burning and fire began surrounding her location.
“I placed 15 dogs into a black Prius along with two cats,” Buturovic stated.
However, she still had an additional nine dogs and a pig needing evacuation, so she signaled to some 18-year-olds with a pickup truck who consented to transport them to a shelter. She was unable to take two ponies with her, but she left the enclosure gate open so they possessed the option to escape if necessary.
“That is how we evacuated almost 30 animals,” she recounted. “It was unbelievable.”
Buturovic represents one of numerous animal owners in Los Angeles who hurried to move themselves and their cherished companions out of the path of rapidly spreading wildfires that resulted in the deaths of 11 individuals and consumed more than 12,000 residences and other structures this week. The situation has overwhelmed shelters, whose leaders have urgently requested that people, if they are capable, locate friends or family to temporarily care for their pets.
Wendy Winter and her husband determined on Tuesday evening that they ought to purchase some carriers for cats so they could evacuate their Altadena residence with their cats named Purry Mason and Jerry. Less than two hours later, it became apparent they needed to depart. The following morning, they discovered the house they had occupied for over seven years was destroyed along with the rest of their street.
“There is apprehension and grief and you simply don’t comprehend,” she expressed. “You are in disbelief.”
They are hoping to locate friends to temporarily house their cats for two months while they determine their next steps. Winter indicated that she and her husband are disoriented, and they lack certainty that they can currently provide their cats with an environment where they will feel secure and at ease.
Some individuals transported their pets to shelters because they were unable to evacuate with them.
The Pasadena Humane Society received 250 pets during the initial day after the fires commenced. Los Angeles County Animal Care was tending to 97 pets — primarily cats and dogs but also pigs, a turtle, a bird, and a snake, according to Christopher Valles, a department spokesperson.
Veterinarian Dr. Annie Harvilicz had been in the process of relocating from an old Animal Wellness Centers office in Marina del Rey, but inspired by her brother's need to secure a location for his pets, she transformed the examination, X-ray, and surgery rooms into a temporary shelter. She promptly accommodated 41 dogs, cats, and a rabbit and swiftly found foster homes for all except two.
She advised people on Facebook to contact her if they required a place for their animals. She anticipated a surge of pets needing refuge but instead has been overwhelmed with people wanting to volunteer their services.
“I am very proud of the residents of Los Angeles and how I genuinely believe they have risen to the occasion when it pertains to assisting one another,” she said.
Certain individuals wanted Harvilicz to take their donkeys but she was unable to obtain a trailer for them before they were required to evacuate. Difficulties in transporting larger animals place them at greater risk from wildfires, she stated.
Julia Bagan, who is a member of a Facebook group known as Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation, discovered five horses confined within their stalls in Altadena one day following the fire. The horses clustered in a small outdoor pen connected to the stalls but were unable to entirely escape the flames.
By the time a neighbor requested assistance and firefighters employed bolt cutters to release them, one of the horses was seriously injured, according to Bagan.
She drove through the remains of the fire Wednesday night to rescue them as damaged power lines sparked overhead. She characterized it as “the most chaotic, perilous” evacuation she has experienced thus far. Nearly all the houses in the vicinity had burned when she arrived.
The injured horse, a 3-year-old black mare she chose to name after the movie Flicka, sustained burns to her legs. Her halter was burned off, along with her tail and mane. The embers caused ulcers in her eyes.
A veterinarian at an emergency equine hospital assessed the horse's odds of survival at 50-50.
“She simply had no possibility, being left locked in a stall with her owners evacuating and just leaving them all there,” Bagan expressed.
However, some horse owners were prepared.
When Meredith McKenzie received notification several days prior concerning the elevated fire risk, she asked individuals at her barn to assist in evacuating her horse so she could concentrate on caring for her sister who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
“Horse people are not unintelligent about the presence of an approaching fire. We evacuate before it begins because once that smoke appears, the horses become agitated and frantic,” McKenzie explained. “It is very challenging to gather them because their sole desire is to run.”
The ranch where she kept her horses, the historic Bob Williams Ranch on Cheney Trail, was destroyed by fire, she stated. McKenzie lost her equipment but another ranch has indicated they will provide her with a saddle and bridle.
Suzanne Cassel evacuated on Tuesday from Topanga with her two horses, a donkey named Oscar Nelson, four dogs, and two cats. They hurried to secure a spot at a large animal emergency shelter at Pierce College, a community college situated in Woodlands Hills.
Her horses are together within the shelter, while the dogs and cats are residing in the horse trailer. Her donkey, however, was feeling dejected in a stall by himself.
“He is lonely, so I simply entered and sat in the stall with him for half an hour, and he appreciated that because nobody enjoys being alone when they are a herd animal,” she said.
Buturovic, who manages the dog rescue shelter, took a portion of her canines to Harvilicz’s former hospital and others to a friend’s residence in Venice.
By the time she returned to the Topanga ranch on Wednesday morning, it had burned. The cement structure that had withstood two or three other fires since the 1950s was covered in soot, its roof gone and windows shattered. Her ponies had disappeared, along with two semi-feral dogs she had been feeding. She is hoping to raise funds to support Philozoia, her non-profit organization that rescues animals from high-kill shelters.
“I am uncertain of our path forward from here,” she stated.