[StBernard] Animal Care, and more...

[Westley Annis]

Animal Care, and more...

December 14 , 2005

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Best Friends Animal Society meets in New Orleans to try to find by Internet
pets missing since Katrina and Rita; St. Bernard Unified School now up to
620 students and officials expect 800-1,000 in January

St. Bernard Parish residents missing pets since Hurricane Katrina and Rita
are invited to attend the Best Friends Animal Society meeting Friday-Sunday,
Dec. 16-18, at a New Orleans hotel, where specialists will help them search
by Internet, a St. Bernard animal shelter official said.

"If they haven't found their animals they should attend this weekend,'' said
Ceily Trog, long-time head of the animal shelter for St. Bernard Parish,
which isn't currently operating.

The sessions are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. to 6
p.m. on Sunday, all at the Garden District Hotel, 2203 St. Charles Avenue at
Jackson Avenue.

There will be banks of computers and animal reunion specialists will help
people search the Internet for the possible whereabouts of missing pets. The
Best Friends Animal Society, which has a no-kill sanctuary in Utah, is
holding the sessions, Trog said.

"They are trying to get people together with their animals,'' said Trog,
explaining there are many number of groups fostering animals rescued
throughout the New Orleans area, including St. Bernard Parish, during
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Trog also said St. Bernard residents can email her and she can send them to
several link sites on the Internet where information about animals may be
found. Trog said she can be emailed at sbpanimal at aol.com.

St. Bernard had several animal shelters after Katrina that dealt with about
500 animals, she said. But the animal shelter currently isn't operating.

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Officials of St. Bernard Unified School, the public school that opened Nov. 
14 at Chalmette High School, said Tuesday here are now about 620 students in

the facility, nearly twice as many as attended on opening day.

Also, school system officials are expecting a total of 800-1,000 students 
when the second semester opens Jan. 18.

"I know we're getting more in every day and a number of families have 
indicated that as soon as they are in their FEMA trailer their children will

be in school here,'' said Superintendent of Schools Doris Voitier. "As the 
number of FEMA trailers grow in St. Bernard the number of our students will 
increase.''
St. Bernard had about 8,800 students in the public school system prior to 
Hurricane Katrina but Voitier said she has been pleased with the growing 
number of students attending the unified school.

The school started on the second-floor of Chalmette High and in trailer 
classroos set up in the football stadium parking lot. But Voitier said 
nearly all of the students except the very youngest will be in the fully 
renovated Chalmette High for Jan. 18.

Officials have also said there seems to be a push on the Internet by 
students to get seniors from the public schools to return and finish their 
last year at the unified school.