KATRINA PET RESCUE UNLEASHED HUNDREDS TO BE AIRLIFTED TO L.A. FOR CARE, HOMES.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

They cruise through flooded or muddy streets, scanning porches, backyards and windows for hungry animals left stranded by Hurricane Katrina.

``It's very sad ... it is overwhelming,'' said SPCA Los Angeles spokeswoman Dawn Cotterell, via cell phone from Jefferson Parish, La., as she and a dozen members of her Disaster Animal Response Team hunted for lost pets.

``We have seen dogs chained on porches, tied up in backyards, starving. Many of them are pretty thin, you can see their ribs. It breaks my heart.''

The Samaritans from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles, are among many Southern California residents who have raced against time to aid pets along the ravaged Gulf Coast.

They have scouted waterlogged neighborhoods. Fed stray animals. Manned temporary shelters. Found foster homes. And attempted to unite family pets with owners scattered from Texas to the Canadian border.

Volunteers work from dawn till dusk, bedding down for the night in tents and rented cars.

In the next few weeks, SPCA Los Angeles plans to airlift 300 homeless dogs from Hurricane Katrina from Houston to Los Angeles for foster care or permanent homes.

Amanda St. John, founder of MuttShack.org, said her rescue group has shipped more than 250 dog crates to Baton Rouge and New Orleans and rescued 40 dogs a day from within the devastated city.

The Lake View Terrace resident will fly to Louisiana today to coordinate rescue operations for 40 volunteers to save the pooches.

``We're camping out, we have groups in RVs, we're sleeping in cars. We're just trying to save the dogs and cats and the tarantulas,'' said St. John, 49, who grew to love animals on the savanna in her native Zululand in South Africa.

``I got an e-mail yesterday saying, 'My pot-bellied pig is in my backyard, please rescue him.' If need be, I will be wading in the water.''

Hollywood celebs have even jumped into the act, with public pleas for pet relief.

``I am haunted, worse than you will ever know,'' said Gretchen Wyler, vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, Hollywood, based in Encino, who recruited such celebrities as Sean Aston and Bill Maher for TV spots. ``Everyone in America knows that these aren't something that wags its tail - they're members of people's families.''

On Sunday, state and federal officials permitted more than 3,000 dogs at a full HSUS/SPCA temporary shelter in Gonzales, La., to begin relocating to other states.

That means more room for the dozens of pets rescued daily from New Orleans that need aid. The Humane Society, which has a disaster team of 200 rescuers on the Gulf Coast, is looking to open a second shelter near Gonzales to cope with the overflow.

The HSUS and other groups have rescued nearly 4,000 animals from Louisiana and Mississippi, with 200 reunited with their owners. Petfinder.com is posting photos of the lost Katrina pets.

Before they are shipped to other shelters, each pet will be photographed, microchipped and documented.

``This is a massive undertaking,'' said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society, in a statement. ``People who have lost everything are holding on to their last hope that their pets will be saved.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Volunteers pet two dogs that were found wandering the streets of New Orleans.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

(2) A stranded dog stands on the roof of a home surrounded by floodwaters in New Orleans on Saturday. Volunteers have rescued thousands of pets in the Gulf Coast.

Steve Senne/Associated Press

(3) ST. JOHN