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NEW ORLEANS - In Orleans Parish at North Tonti Street, Paul Berry and his crew slip a boat into putrid floodwaters. The overpowering stench - a combination of stagnant seawater, chemicals and a couple of bodies lying nearby - doesn't seem to bother Berry.
What consumes his attention right now are the cats and dogs still trapped in sweltering homes and inside the wretched Superdome, where floors are caked in human feces.
Rigid bodies of animals - some of which reportedly have been run over by emergency vehicles or shot by soldiers and police - line the streets.
After more than 10 sweltering days without food and clean water, many of the abandoned and orphaned pets are within hours of perishing. Berry, chief operations officer for the Kanab-based Best Friends Animal Society, and his Utah team are frantically working to get them out alive.
His team of about 15 people has hauled more than 750 cats and dogs to an animal shelter in Tyler Town, Miss.
On Friday, the volunteers boarded flat-bottomed johnboats and traveled through neighborhoods in 4 to 5 feet of water, calling out for dogs and cats. When they got a response from inside a house, the volunteers broke down doors and climbed through windows to get to the pets, some of which were standing on floating furniture inside.
By day's end, the team had rescued 15 dogs and cats.
An estimated 50,000 pets were left behind by Hurricane Katrina evacuees scrambling for safety. Too few people, Perry said, are mobilizing search-and-rescue operations for animals in the flood-stricken parts of the city.
"As smart and as good as we are on many things, we've been so poorly organized on this effort. It's tragic," said Berry. "It's astonishing how little activity is happening in there for animals."
While some parts of the greater New Orleans area have been well-searched by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), many remain largely untouched.
By Friday, animal rights workers from a variety of groups had rescued about 1,400 pets from Louisiana and Mississippi, said Melissa Seide Rubin, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States. Thousands more are expected to be rescued in the next couple of days, she said.
"Time is running out and we're acting as fast as we can," said Seide Rubin.
To survive, some animals are feeding on human remains, but those animals will not be destroyed as a result, she said.
On Thursday, Berry and Chicago veterinarian Debbie Rykoff picked up a rat terrier, two pit bulls, a golden Labrador retriever named Sadie, three poodles and three other mixes in the New Orleans suburb of St. Bernard, which was covered in water until only two days ago.
Dark stains ring the sides of houses and buildings, indicating the contaminated sludge was as high as 5 feet deep. Dead fish and stingrays washed in from the Gulf lie in piles. Dogs mill around vacant gas stations, at apartment complexes and near scores of electrical workers who offer them slices of bread and MREs. Sick and weak, the dogs stumble awkwardly, like newborn fawns. Almost all are suffering acute colitis, most likely from drinking the contaminated floodwater.
Berry said the rescued animals, which are rehydrated intravenously and gingerly fed small portions of wet cat food, are grateful. Ones picked up Thursday were rail thin and soiled with black, smelly slime.
"No biting, no growling, no fussing. They just come and lean on you and bury their head in your chest. I've seen hundreds, and every single one [is that way]," he said.
One dog sat in a boat marooned on a highway median for several days before Best Friends volunteers pulled him out. His owner's body was found floating face down only 20 feet away.
The dog was "very, very happy to be pulled out of that boat," Berry said. "Weak, and very scared, and very happy to be pulled out of that boat."
At Wilson Street and Chef Menteur Boulevard, a white trailer bears an orange spray-painted message on its wall: "12 dogs."
Inside, a black dog perched on his hind legs looked out a window, his paws resting in between prison-like bars.
Scenes likes this haunt Berry. Since arriving in New Orleans on Aug. 30, he has had nightmares and uneasy moments during the day.
The animals. The bodies. The smells. It wasn't what he expected.
"You have to constantly keep readjusting," he said.
With limited space in his black Ford Expedition, Berry has been forced to leave many pets behind. He says he hopes the SPCA will retrieve them and ferry them to a shelter where workers will attempt to place them in foster care.
At the Jefferson Parish shelter, dogs and feral cats filled the cages. Among them was a golden Labrador mix who lost her pups, and a litter that lost its mother. When workers placed the two together, the orphaned pups were able to suckle, Berry said.
Shelter workers are naming the dogs after the natural disaster that landed them there.
"There are about 30 dogs here named Katrina."
Look online for orphaned pets
* Hurricane survivors trying to find their lost pets can check out http://www.bestfriends.org or http://www.petfinder.com. Anyone wishing to adopt an orphaned pet also can go to those Web sites.