Pets of Argentine flood victims in need of homes

Buenos Aires, April 16 (IANS/EFE) The pets of the thousands of victims of the flooding earlier this month in the Argentine city of La Plata gaze out from photographs on social-networking sites, looking sad and lost as they wait to be reunited with their owners or adopted by a new owner.

Some of the animals, the majority of them cats and dogs, wander the city’s streets, while others have been taken in by families who hope they will be reclaimed by their owners or placed in new homes.

“Peque”, “Negra”, “Pichu” and “Petiso” are four dogs that need new homes because their owner died in the floods.

“My mother sadly died in the floods and now I am trying to get someone to adopt them. She was president of an animal welfare organization and always helped them a lot,” the victim’s daughter, Claudia, told EFE.

The “Cuatro patas reencuentros en La Plata” (Four Paws Reunions in La Plata) initiative has been launched to create a registry of homeless pets.

Residents who lost pets in the floods gather every morning in La Plata’s Plaza Islas Malvinas, displaying photographs and describing their furry friends in an effort to be reunited with them.

The young people behind the project set up two tables in the plaza, one for lost dogs and another for dogs that have been found, preparing profiles of the pooches available.

“There are also people with cats, but we have given greater priority to dogs because they are more problematic in the sense that more fights break out among them and because they are dirtier,” said one of the volunters, Jorge.

“Lucy”, a six-year-old Siamese mix, is one of the lucky ones.

The cat got lost during the floods and was found by her owners via Facebook.

A photograph of “Lucy” was posted on the social-networking site along with those of other lost pets by La Plata Busca Sus Mascotas, one of the many pages created in the wake of the deluge.

–IANS/EFE

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