Saving the animals in Ike's aftermath

Mike Stuckey Senior news editor • Profile

Self-described “old cowboy” Jerry Finch says his daddy used to joke that he was conceived in the saddle, so it’s not surprising that the silver-haired Texan is now at the forefront of efforts to save horses and cattle from the deadly mess left by Hurricane Ike.

“We keep getting reports of 20 horses here, 15 over there,” Finch told msnbc.com via satellite telephone from Galveston, where Ike roared ashore as a Category 2 storm Saturday, killing at least 17 people across the state and causing billions in damage.

As the founder and president of Habitat for Horses in nearby Hitchcock, rescuing horses from neglect and abuse and placing them out for adoption is Finch’s everyday passion. Now, he has been pulled in to post-Ike efforts at the request of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Department to round up and care for horses caught in the storm, and provide feed for stranded cattle.

Finch’s group is just one of many throughout the area that are focusing on creatures great and small in the aftermath of the storm.

Teams from the Texas Animal Health Commission, state Department of Agriculture and USDA are overseeing the livestock rescue effort. That is a Texas-sized problem in a state that is home to more than a million of the 9 million-plus horses and 14 million of the estimated 95 million head of cattle in the United States.

Although Ike struck well east of the state’s major cattle-raising region, the Texas Farm Bureau said that as of late Tuesday thousands of cattle had drowned and 15,000 were “uncontained” and in danger. There was no estimate on the number of dead and loose horses.

Habitat for Horses Jerry Finch's passion is saving horses.

The Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is spearheading efforts to rescue cats, dogs and other pets in coordination with the Galveston Island Humane Society, Brazoria County SPCA and the Bay Area SPCA of San Leon, said spokeswoman Stacy Fox.

Habitat for Horses, which also saved animals after Katrina in 2005, has put rescue efforts ahead of salvage and repair operations at its own 27-acre facility, which was “completely decimated,” according to spokeswoman Valerie Kennedy. “All the shelters for the horses there on the site have been flattened,” including a new barn that was funded through years of careful saving by the nonprofit, donor-funded organization. “It’s bad. All their hay and stuff was completely ruined.” Thankfully, she said, none of the 60 horses at the ranch and awaiting adoption was injured when Ike hit.

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