Sister Michael on search-rescue in Santa Rita, Kinship Circle — Mountains Fall

Mountains Fall

Sick rabbits are rescued from empty home (c) Kinship Circle — Sister Michael (a vet tech) and an EstimAcao volunteer recover weak, dehydrated rabbits from a deserted home in Santa Rita.

© Kinship Circle / Santa Rita, Brazil

Mountains Fall Like Cookies Off A Baking Sheet. When the dirt layer atop granite mountains is soaked, the mountain collapses. Even dense jungle layers cannot hold it back. Flash floods caused mountains to crash down on Santa Rita, a village just beyond Teresopolis. Every human died or evacuated. Today we search for signs of life. We spot a black Cocker Spaniel mix who leads us to a house where occupants fled without their animals. Seven chickens and five rabbits are caged with no food or water. Two young ducks share quarters with the chickens. Three dogs roam and a finch-type songbird is caged indoors. We retrieve the animals and release the wild songbird. A neighbor tells us that the residents have returned just once. All animals are severely dehydrated and starving. We stabilize and cage domesticated animals for transport to the disaster shelter. Most animals recovered from mudslide wreckage are sick, injured, even dying. We see broken bones, parasites, maggot infestation, parvo, eye infections, burns, tumors Please donate to help offset soaring costs for meds and veterinary treatment.

Santa RitaOur search-rescue teams span rural pockets across this hard-hit mountain village. Boards, doors and trees, torn from their original bearings, are aligned into makeshift bridges over flood streams. A theme persists: Where human fled, animals remain. One of the ducks we rescue from an abandoned home in Santa Rita is so weak, we doubt she'll survive the night. But she seems to rally when bathed in an infant washtub. Back at the Teresopolis shelter, all the rabbits and ducks rescued from a vacated home in Santa Rita drink and eat voraciously. In addition to farmed animals, cats and dogs survive atop old truckbeds or hidden in roadside brush. Usually illusive cats are ready for rescue because they are starved and worn out. As always, scarce shelter space forces us to triage rescue those animals most likely to die if sheltered in the field with food and water. Support remains critical, as we continue to find animals struggling to stay alive.

A weak rescued rabbit goes to shelter, (c) Kinship Circle

Rescued rabbits in Santa Rita Brazil, Kinship Circle — Rescued rabbits return to the shelter, where local youth volunteers like Savio da Silva Santos, with Sister Michael Marie, pitch in to help animals.

© Kinship Circle, Brazil

Rabbits, Sister and local youth volunteer, Kinship Circle — Rescued rabbits return to the shelter, where local youth volunteers like Savio da Silva Santos, with Sister Michael Marie, pitch in to help animals.

© Kinship Circle, Brazil

Volunteer Savio da Silva Santos, 15 (c) Kinship Circle

From Wreckage

Sister Michael holds rescued calico, (c) Kinship Circle — From Wreckage

From Wreckage

Tony Pires (Resgate de Animais) and Dennis (c) Kinship Circle

From The Wreckage, Some Are Saved And Others Are Not. We continue to pull more survivors from seemingly unsurvivable ruins. Today's search and rescue team includes Kinship Circle's Sister Michael Marie and Dennis Pickersgill, along with Tony Pires of Resgate de Animais and Rosaly Bastos of SOS Felinos. Sister enlists 15-year old Savio da Silva Santos, described as a “a great shelter helper with good animal sense.” Rio volunteers Noah and his girlfriend come with us to assist as well. The longer we are on ground in Brazil, the more local volunteers (many are teens and local school kids) join efforts to comfort, transport and care for animal disaster victims.

By 1:00pm we navigate winding dirt roads on the long mountain ascent into Santa Rita. Along the way, Tony Pires of Resgate de Animais coaxes a disoriented bull from his steep hillside perch, with help from Dennis and Rosaly. Most residents fled or died in flash floods and landslides that leveled this community. We encounter an underweight horse in one deserted area. After investigating, we learn that his guardians have just returned to care for him. A bewildered dog peers from behind wooden slats in a destroyed home, but the frightened animal evades capture. We find a confused cat frozen in place, in the middle of a road. The black-white kitty is stressed and easy to crate. According to locals, four more kittens are hunkered down in an deserted home up the road. We coax out an adorable 8-week old calico, but his littermates have vanished. Despite the disaster environment, the teeny kit is ready to be held and cooed over. We search for the other kittens, and ask locals to keep an eye out for them.

Disasters Reveal

KC-DART & IDASister Michael Marie, Carlos Cabral, Dennis Pickersgill, NGO EstimAcao, Resgate De Animais
LocationTeresopolis, Santa Rita & Rural Communities, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Field LogBrenda Shoss Feb 13 2011

DISASTERS REVEAL POVERTY, SOCIAL INJUSTICE AND FORGOTTEN ANIMALSBack in Teresopolis we're joined by Raphael, a military lieutenant who volunteers for urban search and rescue. The emergency shelter serves as an animal drop-off site for displaced residents unable to care for animals, but also for those who simply no longer want their animals. A friendly, but skeletal white German Shepherd is surrenderd, along with a 65-pound Pit Bull with mammary tumors from overbreeding. In the field, a young white poodle is stranded atop a hot metallic roof. Young Savio scrambles up to get the 10-pound pooch. Rosaly retrieves a white cat who may have feline leukemia. We scoop up a dazed Golden Retriever mix, just 12-weeks old, dodging traffic. Today's rescues are brought to the shelter at sunset. Inside, a puppy with chronic lung and skin conditions has died. Volunteers describe harrowing arcs of birth and death, each day, inside the shelter. Some grow close to precious puppies, only to see them perish days later. Volunteers cradle the fading babies until they are gone and bury them on shelter grounds. Please consider a donation, so we are able to send more veterinarians, techs and volunteers to fully manage a constant flow of animal victims.