Californians evacuate dogs, cats, horses and even pigs as the flames advance

Arianna Buturovic watched the distant smoke warily from the shelter she runs outside Los Angeles for dogs at risk of being euthanized. Within hours, the nearby mountains were on fire and the fire began to surround it.

“I packed 15 dogs and two cats into a black Prius,” Buturovic said.

But he still had nine other dogs and a pig to evacuate, so he stopped some 18-year-olds in a van who agreed to take them to a shelter. He couldn’t take two ponies, but he left the corral open so they could escape if necessary.

“This is how we evacuated almost 30 animals,” he added. “It was crazy.”

Buturovic is one of many Los Angeles animal owners who rushed to safety with their beloved companions in the rapids. forest fires that this week killed 11 people and devastated more than 12,000 homes and other structures.

This has overwhelmed the shelters, whose managers have implored the population to, if they can, find friends or family to take in their pets.

Wendy Winter and her husband decided Tuesday night that they should buy some cat carriers so they could evacuate their Altadena home with their felines Purry Mason and Jerry. Less than two hours later, it was clear they had to go. The next morning, they learned that the house they lived in for more than seven years was gone along with the rest of their street.

“There is fear and loss and you don’t even know,” he said. “You are in shock.”

They hope to find friends who will take in their cats for two months while they decide what their next steps will be. Winter acknowledged that she and her husband are disoriented and unsure if they can provide their cats with an environment where they feel safe and comfortable right now.

Some people took their pets to shelters because they couldn’t leave with them.

Pasadena Humane Society took in 250 pets the first day after the fires started. In 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, a department spokesman.

Veterinarian Annie Harvilicz had left a former Animal Wellness Centers office in Marina del Rey, but inspired by her brother’s need to find a place for his pets, she transformed the exam, x-ray and surgery rooms into a makeshift shelter. . She quickly took in 41 dogs, cats and a rabbit and soon found foster homes for all but two.

In a Facebook post, she offered to let anyone who needed a place to leave their animals contact her. He expected an avalanche of pets in need, but instead he received a flood of proposals from people who want to volunteer.

“I’m so proud of the people of Los Angeles and I really feel like they’ve stepped up when it comes to helping each other,” she said.

Some wanted Harvilicz to take their donkeys, but he couldn’t get a trailer before they had to evacuate. Difficulties in transporting larger animals leave them at greater risk from forest fires, he added.

Julia Bagan, who is part of a Facebook group called Southern California Emergency Equine Evacuation, found five horses locked in their stables in Altadena a day after the fire. The animals were grouped in a small outdoor corral attached to the stables but were unable to fully 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.

He drove through the remains of the fire Wednesday night to rescue them as damaged power lines crackled overhead. He described the evacuation as “the craziest and most dangerous” he has had so far. Almost all the houses in the area had burned when he arrived.

The injured animal, a 3-year-old black mare whom he decided to name after the movie Flicka, had burns on her legs. His halter, tail and mane were burned. The embers caused ulcers in his eyes. A vet at an emergency equine hospital said he had a 50% chance of survival.

“She didn’t have a chance, locked in a stable and with her owners walking away and leaving her there,” Bagan said.

But some horse owners were prepared.

When Meredith McKenzie received notice days earlier about the elevated fire risk, she asked people at her barn to help her get the animal out so she could focus on caring for her sister who has Alzheimer’s.

“Horse people are not stupid about a fire coming. We leave before it starts because once there is smoke, the horses go crazy and want to run,” McKenzie said. “It’s very difficult to corner them because they just want to run away.”

The ranch where he kept his horses, the historic Bob Williams Ranch on Cheney Trail, burned, he explained. McKenzie lost his saddle, but another ranch said they will give him a saddle and bridle.

Suzanne Cassel left Topanga behind Tuesday with her two horses, a donkey named Oscar Nelson, four dogs and two cats. They scrambled to find space at an emergency large animal shelter at Pierce College, a community center in Woodlands Hills.

Their horses are together in the shelter, while the dogs and cats are housed in the equipment trailer. The donkey, however, was depressed alone in a stable.

“He’s alone, so I went in and sat with him for half an hour, and he liked that because no herd animal likes to be alone,” she explained.

Buturovic, who runs the dog rescue shelter, took some of his canines to the former Harvilicz hospital and others to a friend’s house in Venice.

By the time he returned to Topanga’s ranch on Wednesday morning, it had burned. The concrete building that had weathered two or three other fires since the 1950s was covered in soot, the roof was missing and the windows had burst out. His ponies disappeared, along with two semi-feral dogs he fed. She hopes to raise funds to support Philozoia, her nonprofit that rescues animals from high mortality shelters.

“I don’t know where we’re going to end up,” he admitted.

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