Nagin's latest gaffe: Rottweilers will ride under the bus

In announcing Hurricane evacuation procedures the other day, Mayor Nagin detailed plans for the evacuation of pets. Small animals could ride on buses with their owners he said, but larger animals, like rottweilers, would be put underneath the bus with the luggage. This sounded a little...suspicious to me. Would there be crates? Or were they just tossing large dogs loose into the luggage area? And isn't that a little close to the fumes from the exhaust?

No need to worry, it turns out Nagin was making it up as he went along. From the director of the Lousiana SPCA:

I have received several emails and calls about Mayor Nagin’s comments regarding pet evacuation as part of the hurricane plan. Despite the Mayor’s comments, animals will not ride in the luggage section of the bus. He was speaking off-the-cuff.

There is no plan for pet evacuation although we have been talking to Homeland Security for a few months on the details of how pet evacuation would work. As you probably realize, there are considerable details to manage in moving thousands of pets. I’m meeting with Homeland Security today. We hope to have a plan in place in the next few weeks.

Our website has lots of details on hurricane preparedness. We will soon have a downloadable brochure that people can print and distribute as they please.

Thanks and hope is well with everyone.

Laura Maloney

Executive Director