Coming to the rescue of animals in distress
Doug Lake cuddles last week with Annie, an Australian shepherd, one of the dogs he rescued during his volunteer work with Emergency Animal Rescue.
By: JEFF FRANK - Staff Writer Editor's Note: North County is filled with people who volunteer their time to help others. This is the story of one of those volunteers.
RAMONA ---- It would be hard to pick Doug Lake's most harrowing experience as an animal rescue volunteer.
Perhaps it was the time he crawled through an underground sewer to free a coyote caught in a leg trap, getting bitten about a dozen times in the process. Or maybe it was when he rappelled off the Coronado Bridge to free a Peregrine falcon trapped in a maintenance cage under the bridge.
It might have been driving through flames to rescue animals during the Cedar fire or wading through the toxic sludge in a flooded New Orleans while rounding up dogs, cats and other creatures left behind by residents fleeing the recent hurricanes.
All of the above are part of the job for Lake, executive director and chairman of the board for Emergency Animal Rescue, a Ramona-based, all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue of any animal, domestic or wild, from a life-threatening situation.
Lake and his fellow EAR volunteers are the people called when a cat gets stuck in a tree, a dog falls down a well or a natural disaster threatens the safety of four-legged creatures.
He was on the scene at the January 2001 Escondido Humane Society fire and the Harmony Grove, Pines, Viejas and Cedar wildfires. He traveled to Houston to help out following a 1996 flood. And he spent 11 days in New Orleans, where he helped rescue more than 450 animals.
Lake spent a lot of his time in New Orleans riding with other volunteers in a small boat with a National Guardsman on the bow with rifle at the ready. They motored through various sections of the city carrying a list of addresses given to them by people who had left pets behind when they fled their homes and gave permission to the group to break in to make the rescues.
Along the way, they rounded up plenty of other animals, including pigs, iguanas, a hamster and an albino python. In one blighted section of the city, Lake said, "Everywhere we went, we heard dogs barking. The water was waist-to-chest deep with oil, gas, antifreeze, decaying dead bodies.
"What you saw on the news was what it looked like, but you don't get the smell ... a stale, stagnant smell that burns your nose," he added.
About a half-gallon of sweat would pool in the legs of Lake's protective drysuit as the group made its rounds in 100 degree temperatures and 95 percent humidity.
Keeping tabs on the operation from home was Lake's significant other, agency liaison Jan Pickton, the last remaining founder of the group that formed in 1993. Pickton maintained a three-inch thick binder of requests from people asking to have their pets rescued.
Lake, who squeezes the rescue work around a full-time job in pharmaceutical operations, got involved in 1994 after hearing a radio report about the group's work during the Northridge earthquake.
"It sounded like a worthwhile cause, so I thought I'd see what it was all about. I've been a member ever since," he said.
About 45 active volunteers are on call to handle various animal rescues. Whoever is closest will get sent on the simpler missions. A big emergency such as a wildfire will bring out the group's reserves, auxiliary and junior volunteers to handle support issues. There is no charge for any rescue.
You never know what to expect when a call comes in about an animal in distress.
"Every rescue is different. You don't know what you'll get until you get there," said Lake. "You have a cat in a tree, supposed to be the nicest cat in the world and it turns into kitty Cujo."
But the gratitude of the owners reunited with their wayward pets helps make all the risks and occasional nastiness worthwhile.
"It's a wonderful feeling when somebody sees a pet they didn't know they would see again," Lake said. "I know if I lost my dog, when I saw him again it would be wonderful. To be able to offer that to somebody ... it's wonderful to see the look on their face."
Lake, Pickton and the other volunteers offer a valuable service, said Carol Rea, public education specialist for the Escondido Fire Department, who met the couple during the Humane Society fire.
"He's out there doing the down and dirty stuff; the individual rescues, the horses in ravines, dogs crawling into pipes, you name it," said Rea. "It's good to know there are people out there like that."
To volunteer with Emergency Animal Rescue, visit www.emergencyanimalrescue.com.
Contact staff writer Jeff Frank at (760) 740-5419 or jfrank@nctimes.com.
Reprinted with permission of Jeff Frank and the North County Times, October 31, 2005
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