Click here to return to the Disaster Main page
Animal advocate Melissa Forberg helps look after pets in areas hit by disaster
Article from the Northwest Florida Daily News By
Andy Meinen
Sunday May 4th, 2008
MOSSY HEAD — Melissa Forberg makes a habit of heading into disaster again and again, all in the name of helping animals.
She was on the ground in Thailand after the tsunami. She headed to Jackson, Miss., the day after Hurricane Katrina rolled through. And she was in San Diego last year when wildfires blackened the hills.
Forberg is a disaster response consultant for the Humane Society. Basically, she sets up shelters in the most horrific of landscapes so pets and animals can get the care they need while trying to reunite them with their families.
Why does Forberg put herself in such situations around the world? Because someone has to.
"Animals can’t speak for themselves," she said.
Forberg lives on a 40-acre farm in Mossy Head where she and her husband, Steve, breed Arabian horses. Steve is a retired Air Force pilot, and he doesn’t worry about his wife rushing off to disasters.
"I figure she let me run around for 26 years in the Air Force so now it’s her turn," he said. "She has a lot of training and experience so I don’t worry too much."
That experience came in handy after Hurricane Katrina. For nearly six weeks, Forberg lived in the small cab in the front part of her horse trailer in Hattiesburg, Miss.
While Humane Society search teams combed the coast for lost pets and injured animals, Forberg coordinated the operation of a shelter at the Hattiesburg Fairgrounds. When the search teams found a pet, they were put on a climate-controlled truck for the trip to the shelter, where the animal would get any vital care and shots needed. Forberg and company would then take a picture of the pet and put it on the Internet so its family could find it.
Of all of the disasters Forberg has seen, Katrina had the lowest success rate at getting pets back to their owners. Part of the reason was the scale of havoc.
"The people were scattered to the wind," she said.
About 20 percent of the 800 pets at the Hattiesburg shelter found their way home. The rest was shipped off to shelters around the country and put up for adoption.
Forberg herself adopted a Katrina kitty name Cane — short for hurricane — that died in November of kidney failure. She also has a 112-pound Saint Bernard named Annie that she brought home from Vero Beach after Hurricane Francis stormed through.
When Annie came into the shelter, she was 80 pounds. She was malnourished and had heartworms. Forberg decided that if no one claimed her, then she’d adopt her and bring her back to the farm. Annie now lumbers around Forberg’s two-story home and licks houseguests.
In Thailand, after the wall of water washed away so many lives, Forberg headed in. She worked at a displaced persons camp vaccinating animals.
Officials in Thailand were concerned that the animals living in such close quarters to humans would spread disease. Initially, officials wanted to destroy the animals in the camp, but the Humane Society, along with Forberg, helped save them.
Forberg also gets called out to assist law enforcement on occasion. One incident two years ago took her to Cocke County, Tenn.
Authorities raided a cockfighting operation and Forberg, along with FBI agents and other officials, walked in on an active cockfight. The attendees ran as well as the people behind the operation. The two raging roosters were still going at it in the empty arena, and it was up to Forberg to stop them — carefully.
"They put razors on their (roosters’) legs," she said.
Forberg grabbed a blanket and threw it over the roosters. Afterward a large FBI agent in a Kevlar vest and helmet came up to Forberg.
"He said, ‘I wouldn’t have done that,’ " she said with a laugh.
The operation in Cocke County was like nothing she’d ever seen. A pit surrounded by chain-linked fence had bleachers, a concession stand and a gift shop.
"It was horrifying," she said. "It was like institutionalized cruelty."
About 200 roosters had to be put down.
"It always makes me feel — not good — but at least those animals aren’t going to suffer anymore."
Click here to return to the Disaster Main page