Californians scrambled to evacuate dogs, cats, horses, even pigs as LA flames closed in
LOS ANGELES — Arianna Buturovic kept a close eye on the distant smoke from the shelter she runs outside Los Angeles for dogs at risk of euthanization. Within hours, nearby mountains were on fire and fire began to surround her.
“I put 15 dogs in a black Prius and two cats,” Buturovic said.
But she still had nine dogs and a pig to evacuate, so she flagged down some 18-year-olds with a truck who agreed to take them to a shelter. She couldn’t take two ponies with her, but she left the corral open so they could escape if necessary.
“We evacuated almost thirty animals,” she said. “It was crazy.”
Buturovic is one of many Los Angeles pet owners scrambling to get rid of themselves and their beloved companions. fast-moving forest fires That 11 people killed and burned more than 12,000 houses and other structures this week. It has overwhelmed shelters, whose leaders have begged people to find friends or family to care for their pets, if they are able.
Wendy Winter and her husband decided Tuesday night that they needed to buy cat beds so they could evacuate their Altadena home with their cats Purry Mason and Jerry. Less than two hours later it was clear that they had to leave. The next morning they heard that the house they had lived in for more than seven years had disappeared along with the rest of their street.
“There’s fear and loss and you just don’t even know it,” she said. “You’re in shock.”
They hope to find friends who can care for their cats for two months while they figure out what to do next. Winter said she and her husband are disoriented and aren’t confident they can provide their cats with an environment where they will now feel safe and comfortable.
Some people brought their pets to shelters because they could not evacuate with them.
The Pasadena Humane Society took in 250 pets on the first day after the fires broke out. Los Angeles County Animal Care cared for 97 pets — mostly cats and dogs, but also pigs, a turtle, a bird and a snake, said Christopher Valles, spokesman for the department.
Veterinarian Dr. Annie Harvilicz had moved from an old office of the Animal Welfare Center in Marina del Rey, but inspired by her brother’s need to find a place for his pets, she turned the examination, x-ray and operating rooms into a makeshift shelter. . She quickly took in 41 dogs, cats and a rabbit and soon found foster homes for all but two of the dogs.
She told people on Facebook to contact her if they needed a place for their animals. She expected an onslaught of pets in need of sanctuary, but was instead inundated with people wanting to volunteer.
“I am very proud of the people of Los Angeles and I really feel like they have gone out of their way to help each other,” she said.
Some people wanted Harvilicz to take their donkeys, but she was unable to get a trailer to them before they had to evacuate. The difficulties of transporting larger animals put them at greater risk from wildfires, she said.
Julia Bagan, who is part of a Facebook group called Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation, found five horses locked in their stables in Altadena a day after the fire. The horses huddled in a small outdoor pen attached to the stables, but could not completely escape the flames.
By the time a neighbor called for help and firefighters used bolt cutters to free them, one of the horses was seriously injured, Bagan said.
She drove through the remains of the fire Wednesday evening to rescue them when damaged power lines sparked overhead. She described it as “the craziest, dangerous” evacuation she has ever had. Almost all the houses in the area had burned down when she stopped.
The injured horse, a three-year-old black mare that she wanted to name after the film Flicka, had burns on its legs. Her halter burned off, along with her tail and mane. The embers gave her eye ulcers.
A veterinarian at an equine hospital gave the horse a 50 to 50 chance to survive.
“She just didn’t stand a chance, she was locked in a stable and her owners had to evacuate and leave them all there,” Bagan said.
But some horse owners were ready.
When Meredith McKenzie was notified of the increased fire risk several days earlier, she asked people in her stable to help evacuate her horse so she could focus on caring for her sister who has Alzheimer’s disease.
“Horse people are not stupid when a fire is coming. We’re out before it starts because as soon as that smoke starts, the horses go crazy and crazy,” McKenzie said. “It’s very difficult to get them together because they just want to run.”
The ranch where she kept her horses, the historic Bob Williams Ranch on Cheney Trail, burned down, she said. McKenzie lost her equipment, but another ranch said they will give her a saddle and bridle.
Suzanne Cassel was evacuated from Topanga on Tuesday with her two horses, a donkey named Oscar Nelson, four dogs and two cats. They rushed to get a spot in a large animal shelter at Pierce College, a community college in Woodlands Hills.
Her horses are kept together in the shelter, while the dogs and cats stay in the horse trailer. However, her donkey felt alone in a stable.
“He’s lonely, so I went in and sat with him in the stable for half an hour. He liked that, because no one likes to be alone when you’re a herd animal,” she said.
Buturovic, who runs the dog shelter, took some of her dogs to the old Harvilicz hospital and others to a friend’s house in Venice.
By the time she returned to the Topanga ranch Wednesday morning, it had burned down. The cement building, which has withstood two or three other fires since the 1950s, was covered in soot, its roof gone and its windows blown out. Her ponies disappeared, along with two semi-wild dogs she fed. She hopes to raise money to support Philozoia, her nonprofit organization that rescues animals from high-kill shelters.
“I don’t know where we go from here,” she said.
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Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.