SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Dogs, cats and other pets have joined the stream of evacuees from New Orleans.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a planeload of cats and dogs arrived in California on Sunday. A chartered jet dropped off some dogs in San Diego before continuing to San Francisco with more dogs and cats.
The animals traveled in the cargo hold and in plastic carriers in the passenger compartment.
Kathryn Glab, a Continental Airlines flight attendant spotted giving a beagle some exercise after the plane landed, was asked by the Chronicle if she had ever been on a plane full of animals before. She said she had once been on a plane of football players -- "This was better."
Oil executive T. Boone Pickens, who has also donated $5 million to the American Red Cross for Katrina relief, paid for the charter. Other charters are planned to evacuate more animals to California, Massachusetts and Texas.
Some have been rescued from the flooded cities while others were in animal shelters that are now overcrowded and in some cases closed down by storm damage.
