Why we need a helicopter

The photos below were taken by an INCREDIBLE professional photographer. Mr. John Dessarzin.
They show the road we were on the other day when we went into Cinchona by car.
The bridge is destroyed even though there are still parts of it there.
But the road is, in some spots, just hanging off the side of the mountain.
I have tried to mark some of the spots on the road so you can see what I am talking about.
In the notations on the one picture #'s 1, 2, 3 and 7 are where landslides have covered the road.
# 6 is where the road has caved away even more than it was the day I was driving on it.
# 4 shows where the road has slid down and is now just sort of hanging there in a very slanted position.
# 5 shows what is left of the bridge.

Just click on the photos to get a larger view.




None of this can compare to what has happened on the other side of the mountain where we went, by car, to try to rescue the animals.


As you can clearly see, there is no way to get in there except by helicopter.

We are hoping to go back in sometime this next week to try to collect the remaining animals.

I am posting more photos to our photo site at www.mrbudbud.shutterfly.com
All of them were taken by John Dessarzin.

Say a prayer for us please.

Update 2/13/2009

Hello Everyone,

It's me again. BudBud's mom, "Kitten."

He's allowing me to use his blog to send you this update.
Thanks BudBud. Good boy!!

I could not get a helicopter donated to get into Cinchona so we had to hire one.
I paid for it with what was left of the donations I had and some from our own
pocket as usual. The total cost for the helicopter was $3,000.00. We still owed $1,000.00 because they worked longer than we had planned. We finally got some donations from people here and were able to pay off the balance today.

The weather washed out all the bridges (the one pictured below and shown in the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b92ozoWLNgo washed out the night after we crossed it) and that kept them from dynamiting. They will have to build a temporary bridge to get in to place the charges. The government is not going to allow anyone to build there ever again because the land is too unstable.
We could not go in even by helicopter with the high winds on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.



Cinchona is now nothing but a huge pile of dirt from the mountain that fell on it from above. All the homes were buried. There was a jelly factory there that made the worlds best strawberry jelly and jam. It was destroyed along with 300 workers homes and other buildings in that small village.

I didn't get to go into Cinchona with the helicopter (I had to make a 3 day trip to Panama on Monday) but Isabelle, my earthquake rescue partner, went in. The helicopter people, who did give us a discount, also sent a search and rescue crew to help with capturing and transporting the animals. A reporter from channel 6 and a professional photographer also went in to help.

Isabelle and the crew brought out 6 dogs, 19 pigs and piglets, and about 65 chickens. Even the helicopter pilot helped. All the animals were starving and most were thrilled to be rescued..... well....the mama pigs did put up a bit of a struggle but the baby pigs thought it was fun.

Three of the dogs they brought out had owners waiting for them with open arms. The other three are now with Karin at Animales de Asis shelter.
The animals who have not been claimed by the 15th of February will be placed into adoptive homes. There are many.

Some people have called Karin and told her that she has their dog in her shelter but they have no place to live yet. She is placing a longer hold on those animals to give the owners extra time to find a place for them.

There are still dogs and other animals in Cinchona who need to be rescued. The dogs have turned somewhat feral at this point and cats, goats and others were too frightened to show themselves. Some of the dogs were street dogs who were already feral. They could not be caught that day, since helicopter time was so limited, but we are trying to get enough money together to go back in to to capture them and bring them out.

I am supposed to get the photos from the rescue tomorrow and I will try to post them on BudBuds photo site so you can see them.

Other groups, who have not been anywhere NEAR the earthquake site, are now putting up fliers asking for donations to help with the animals "THEY" rescued from the area. It never ceases to amaze me how people who claim to be rescue people will exploit the animals if it will line their pockets.

One of the groups, who caused so many problems originally, threw a HUGE party in an expensive resort to celebrate "THEIR" accomplishments.
While they were having their party we were still rescuing animals out of the area from which they had claimed to have already rescued all the animals.

The money they spent, just for that party, would have paid for ALL of our expenses and THEN some. I guess that is how they spent the $75,000.00 donation from Europe.

We have also found out that some groups are claiming to be "teamed up" with Lighthouse Animal Rescue and are asking for donations for the animals.
Lighthouse Animal Rescue is not "teamed up" with ANY of these groups.

We cooperated with ALL of the so called rescue people but are not associated with any of them.

I am tired. I have lost 17 or 18 pounds. I am anxious to get back into Cinchona and get the remaining animals out. I don't believe in leaving a job until it is finished.

Please say prayers that we can manage to get another copter and get back in for one more try at saving these animals.

I will update again when I have more news.

Frances "Kitten" Jones
Lighthouse Animal Rescue

Newspaper article on earthquake animal rescue

There was a real good article in a local newspaper yesterday. Mom scanned it so I could put it here on my blog.

Mom is still trying to find a way to get into the Cinchona area so if you know anybody with a helicopter please let us know!!!
Tailwags,
BudBud


Click on the article and it gets big enough to read!!

Video of Cinchona quake area

Hola Everyone,

Mom uploaded a video she took Wednesday coming out of the Cinchona area. They went there to rescue the animals that are left trapped there. They could not get to them because it has started raining and the mountainsides, roads and trees are coming down more.

Everyone, including the media, had been told by the big money groups that they had already gone into this area and rescued all the animals. They lied.

When they were found out they went to the outskirts of Cinchona (safe area) and took some animals out. They made sure the media was there so it would look like they had done their jobs.

If they had not lied Mom's crew would have gone in before the rains and could have saved all of the animals. Many are dead now from starvation.

Mom is going to try to go back in on Saturday and/or Sunday, by helicopter if we can get one donated, to get the animals out before the government dynamites the mountainside on Monday.

Please pray and if you have any connections to someone with a LARGE helicopter please contact us immediately.

Our video is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b92ozoWLNgo

Say prayers please.
Worried tailwags,
BudBud

I Was Mistaken

It's back to work for us. No rest for the weary.



Ok, we lied. Ummmm well... we didn't exactly lie.....I was just "mistaken." We're NOT done at the earthquake site quite yet. There are still strays wandering in from parts unknown in the bad areas.

Mom had to go back to the zone today. A siberian husky had strayed into a stricken area and one of the neighbors, who is known to kill stray animals, had said he was going to shoot the dog.

Another neighbor, who likes animals, called one of the officials at the Freijanes refugee camp and told him about it. Then the official called Mom.

The husky seems like a really nice guy. Mom thinks he's awful pretty too!! He's pretty skinny but it's nothing a few pounds won't cure.



And there's also the little guy Mom got from the chicken pen behind the old house. He's the one who was SOOOOO scared and tried to bite everybody. Now he's in love with Mom.



Anyway, we are still doing our best to finish this job up.

Tailwags and snuggles,
BudBud

Finally Able to Rest

Hola Y'all!!!!

Well, Mom is home today. She posted all the photos of the rescue babies yesterday at all the shelters, local grocery stores, and gave the final list and photos to the govt. officials.

She says she has done all she can do in that area.

She did bring out two more dogs yesterday. She got the one that was in the house that is about to collapse. She says he was laying against one of the outbuildings. That's a good thing cause Mom says if he had been on the porch of the house, like he was the first day, any little struggle would have brought the house crashing down on their heads.
He had gained some weight from all the food they left for him the first day.

He was laying there, growling at them. Mom tossed him a few kernels of dog food and he scarfed them down but kept growling the whole time. She put a small mound of food on the ground near her feet and placed the loop on the catch pole around it.

The dog was so hungry it never even noticed when Mom raised the loop up to get it around the dogs neck.

Mom sent Joray back to the car to get a crate ready while the dog finished off the food.

Once it got done and realized it was caught it started screaming, rolling, tumbling, launching itself behind debris and clinging to it. He yanked Mom down the steep bank three times.
She finally was able to get him around to the car and he stopped struggling to catch his breath. Then he saw the food in the back of the crate Joray had waiting and he walked right in.

Mom took the loop off his neck and closed the crate. He calmed down then and, before the day was over with he was wagging his tail at them.

Joray went back to the yard of the house and left food for the chickens that are there.

Then, at one of the refugee shelters, a dog had wandered in with an injured leg. They had been feeding him so he was in pretty good shape except for the injured leg.
He would not come to the shelter director but he did come to Mom. He liked her and let he pet him and love him, then he let her feel of his injured leg. He did not want to go in the crate though so Mom had another wrestling match to get him in. He was about 40 pounds and very solid so he was pretty strong. He pee'd all over her while she was wrestling with him and she smelled REAL funny when she came home.
Same with him though. He calmed down after a while and now both of them are at the vet hospital to be looked at and will go to Karin's shelter tomorrow.

Mom doesn't know what to do now. There is still an area she can't get into without a helicopter and no one has offered one. Mom says the animals there are haunting her but she can't get to them.
Y'all say a prayer for them okay?

Anyway, the photos of most of the rescue babies are below on the last post. Mom put up these same pics at all the places where the people gather so they might could identify their dog/cat/goat/chicken, etc. and reclaim it.
Altogether our crew brought out 67 animals. We feel really proud to have helped so many.

Tailwags from BudBud the very proud, but tired, Perro Primero.

Our Earthquake Rescues All In A Row

Here are most of the animals we brought out of the earthquake zone. Some have already been reclaimed by their owners so their photo is not here.

There are 50 still in the shelter unclaimed. We are placing posters in the areas tomorrow with these photos on them to make sure everyone has a chance to reclaim their pets.

Altogether we probably brought out 65 to 70 animals and fed, watered, and gave medical attention to hundreds.

All of these are safe and waiting to either be reclaimed or adopted. And GUESS WHAT!!!! Karin already has homes for EVERYONE who doesn't get claimed.
YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!