Nonprofit shelter: Nearly 300 animals relocated so far in Hill Country flood relief

Amid the dozens of confirmed deaths and hundreds of rescues in the fallout of the Hill Country floods, there’s also been an untold number of pets who’ve been separated from their owners. 

Because of that, nonprofit animal shelters like Austin Pets Alive! has been working with organizations in Kerrville and the surrounding areas on pet relocations, rescues and reunifications.

• APA! President Ellen Jefferson said that so far the organization has assisted in relocating almost 300 animals that were awaiting adoption in Central Texas and the Hill Country prior to the start of the floods.

• Scammers have set up fraudulent peer-to-peer money transfer accounts, pretending to be Kerrville Pets Alive!

• Ellen Jefferson says that people interested in donating to animal relief efforts should check for official charity stamps of verification before sending money on apps like Venmo.

• Austin Pets Alive! has set up an email address where people can contact them at TXFloodResponse@AustinPetsAlive.org.

• Austin Pets Alive is still accepting donations.

Ellen Jefferson also joined Texas Standard to discuss relief efforts for animals in Central Texas after the flooding started. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: It’s my understanding that you started working with folks in Kerr County as early as Friday afternoon, right after the stories started coming up? 

Ellen Jefferson: That’s right. Yes, we heard the news and we know from experience that animals are always left behind in disaster response. And so it’s really critical that some sort of infrastructure gets set up right away.

And that’s what we do in disasters across the state. You know, luckily, they’re not always happening. So it’s not all the time and a lot of people don’t know that about us.

But we jumped in right away and started working with our local partner down there in Kerrville to empty out all of the shelters that are in the surrounding region to take the pets that were already in there and bring them over to Austin for adoption.

Transporting those animals from shelters in Kerr County… How many animals are we talking about? 

Well, Kerr County is probably closer to 100, 150 maybe. I’ve lost track actually.

It’s the entire region that has been flooded that we’ve been pulling animals from. So this goes all the way up to Jonestown and Georgetown, to San Angelo, to Kerr County. So we’re just pulling and helping.  

And you talk about mostly what? Dogs and cats? 

All dogs and cats.

All dogs and cats. And what about pets that, you know, have owners already? I mean, what have officials been doing to try to rescue those animals and reunite those animals with their owners?

Right, so just because of the magnitude of the disaster, there’s going to be a lot of animals that are separated from their owners and potentially miles away from their owner. And during this time, when we know people are hurting so badly, the pet, it may be all they have left of their family, or it is an anchor for mental health support. And so we really believe that helping pets is a critical lifesaver for humans.

And so part of that work is just trying to identify all the places that the animals are, documenting it. Sometimes it’s not bringing them into the county shelter. That’s where the county shelters should be the hub for lost and found – physical lost and found.

And then with Kerrville Pets Alive!, we are providing the manpower to run a really robust lost and found spreadsheet, sadly, and working to try to transition that to one of the existing platforms that’s out there, Petco Love Lost being one of them…

Search and rescue, trying to identify deceased and live animals that are out in the field, connecting Kerr County Animal Services to pick up animals that are catchable and don’t appear to have somebody caring for them. And it’s kind of just a multi-pronged effort to try to reunite people with their pets.

But all of those… It’s critical that they stay in Kerr County. If they left the county their owners would never find them.

Rescued cats on the ground in Kerrville.

It’s my understanding that you’re also having to deal with things like fake Venmo accounts that folks have set up pretending to be local animal shelters. What sort of message are you putting out there?

Well, and that has happened mostly to our local partner, Kerrville Pets Alive!

And so they’ve been trying to really get the word out that people need to look for the formal charity stamp before engaging with the app because there have been some fakes that have been set up trying to deter donations to them, to whoever these nefarious people are.

When it comes to legitimate donations, how can people support what you’re trying to do there and the Kerrville Animal Shelter as well?

Yeah, the Kerrville Pets Alive! is an awesome organization, and people can and have been donating there directly.

And the work we’re doing to support the local piece, the local pieces are very small. And so when something like this happens, they really need the help of an organization like ours to just scale overnight.

And so we’ve brought thousands of volunteers to start combing the river. We have brought tons – literally tons – of supplies. We’ve set up a medical MASH clinic down there with veterinarians originally from Austin Pets Alive!, but then also across the entire state and now the country.

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