Wayne Pacelle Federal Quotations

We were on the ground Tuesday, the day after the hurricane hit, but we were excluded from going in by state and federal authorities for the first several days. We've received 2,000 e-mails and phone calls from people who evacuated from New Orleans, who left animals in their homes and are pleading with us to rescue them. That's just in New Orleans. It doesn't count surrounding areas.

There were millions of Americans focused on animal welfare issues in the wake of the disaster, and we also know the bungled federal response to the animal crisis undermined the effectiveness of the human rescue mission.

There are thousands of cases of people who stayed, and they're at risk because of federal and state policy. We're troubled emotionally by the failures.

We want a policy that says the federal and state and local responders should actively assist in animal rescue.

We need the federal government to say that, when it doesn't conflict with human needs, federal responders can rescue animals and cooperate