Californians scrambled to evacuate dogs, cats, horses, even pigs as LA flames closed in

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Arianna Buturovic kept a wary eye on distant smoke from the rescue shelter she runs outside Los Angeles for dogs at risk of being euthanized. Within hours, nearby mountains were ablaze and fire began encircling her.

“I stuffed 15 dogs in a black Prius and two cats,” Buturovic said.

But she still had nine more dogs and a pig to evacuate, so flagged down some 18-year-olds with a truck who agreed to take them to a shelter. She couldn’t bring two ponies with her, but she left the corral open so they could escape if needed.

“That’s how we evacuated almost 30 animals,” she said. “It was crazy.”

Buturovic is one of many animal owners in Los Angeles who scrambled to get themselves and their beloved companions out of the way of fast-moving wildfires that killed 11 people and burned more than 12,000 homes and other structures this week. It has overwhelmed shelters, whose leaders have implored people, if they’re able, to find friends or family to foster their pets.

Wendy Winter and her husband decided Tuesday evening that they should buy some cat carriers so they could evacuate their Altadena home with their felines Purry Mason and Jerry. Less than two hours later, it was clear they needed to leave. The next morning, they learned the house they lived in for more than seven years was gone along with the rest of their street.

“There’s fear and loss and you just don’t even know,” she said. “You’re in shock.”

They’re hoping to find friends to foster their cats for two months while they figure out what they’re going to do next. Winter said she and her husband are disoriented, and they aren’t sure they can provide their cats an environment where they will feel safe and comfortable right now.

Some people took their pets to shelters because they couldn’t evacuate with them.

The Pasadena Humane Society took in 250 pets in the first day after the fires started. Los Angeles County Animal Care was looking after 97 pets — mostly cats and dogs but also pigs, a turtle, a bird, and a snake, said Christopher Valles, a department spokesperson.

Veterinarian Dr. Annie Harvilicz had been moving out of an old Animal Wellness Centers office in Marina del Rey, but inspired by her brother’s need to find a place for his pets, she turned the exam, X-ray and surgery rooms into an impromptu shelter. She quickly took in 41 dogs, cats and a bunny and soon found foster homes for all but two.

She told people on Facebook to contact her if they needed a place for their animals. She expected an onslaught of pets needing refuge but instead has been inundated with people wanting to volunteer.

“I’m very proud of the people of Los Angeles and how I really feel like they’ve stepped up to the plate when it comes to helping out each other,” she said.

Some people wanted Harvilicz to take their donkeys but she wasn’t able to get a trailer to them before they had to evacuate. Difficulties transporting larger animals puts them at greater risk from wildfires, she said.

Julia Bagan, who is part of a Facebook group called Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation, found five horses locked in their stalls in Altadena one day after the fire. The horses huddled in a small exterior pen attached to the stalls but couldn’t entirely escape the flames.

By the time a neighbor called for help and firefighters used bolt cutters to free them, one of the horses was badly hurt, Bagan said.

She drove through the remnants of the fire Wednesday night to rescue them as damaged power lines sparked overhead. She described it as “the most crazy, dangerous” evacuation she’s had yet. Almost all the houses in the area had burned when she pulled up.

The injured horse, a 3-year-old black mare she decided to name after the movie Flicka, had leg burns. Her halter burned off, along with her tail and mane. The embers gave her eyes ulcers.

A veterinarian at an emergency equine hospital gave the horse 50-50 odds of surviving.

“She just had no chance, getting left locked in a stall and her owners evacuating and just leaving them all there,” Bagan said.

But some horse owners were ready.

When Meredith McKenzie got a notice days before of the heightened fire risk, she asked people at her barn to help evacuate her horse so she could focus on caring for her sister who has Alzheimer’s.

“Horse people are not stupid about if there’s fire coming. We’re out before it starts because once that smoke happens, the horses go nuts and go crazy,” McKenzie said. “It’s very hard to corral them because they just want to run.”

The ranch where she kept her horses, the historic Bob Williams Ranch on Cheney Trail, burned, she said. McKenzie lost her equipment but another ranch has said they’ll give her a saddle and bridle.

Suzanne Cassel evacuated Tuesday from Topanga with her two horses, a donkey named Oscar Nelson, four dogs and two cats. They rushed to nab a spot at a large animal emergency shelter at Pierce College, a community college in Woodlands Hills.

Her horses are together in the shelter, while the dogs and cats are staying in the horse trailer. Her donkey, though, was feeling down in a stall by himself.

“He’s lonely, so I just went inside and sat in the stall with him for half an hour, and he liked that because nobody likes to be alone when you’re a herd animal,” she said.

Buturovic, who runs the dog rescue shelter, took some of her canines to Harvilicz’s old hospital and others to a friend’s home in Venice.

By the time she returned to the Topanga ranch Wednesday morning, it had burned. The cement building that withstood two or three other fires since the 1950’s was covered in soot, its roof gone and windows blown out. Her ponies disappeared, along with two semi-feral dogs she fed. She’s hoping to raise money to support Philozoia, her non-profit organization that rescues animals from high-kill shelters.

“I don’t know where we’re going to go from here,” she said.

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Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.

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