Rescuers brave volcanic eruptions in Indonesia to save pets

Tagulandang, Indonesia: An Indonesian volunteer returns from a dangerous rescue mission to a remote island where a volcano recently unleashed massive eruptions. He cradles an abandoned, emaciated dog covered in burn blisters.

Mount Ruang in Indonesia’s northernmost region has erupted more than a half-dozen times since April 16, creating a spectacular mix of ash, lava and lightning that forced the island’s residents to be permanently relocated and thousands of others evacuated .

But while locals have fled, a team of volunteers have traveled by boat to Ruang on daring rescue missions to rescue abandoned pets from the base of the volcano that remains on the highest alert level.

“We know they (the animals) are still alive there. How come we let them die when we know they are still alive there?” 31-year-old volunteer Laurent Tan told AFP on Saturday.

Laurent, the owner of two animal shelters in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, is one of eight volunteers who made the six-hour ferry journey to Ruang’s neighboring island of Tagulandang several times after the eruptions.

During one of their missions to the island’s ash-covered houses, they found an unnamed puppy, a white cat and a bright turquoise-white tropical bird.

The dog, a female with burns to her face and body, was taken to a makeshift shelter in Tagulandang, where a veterinarian treated her on a wooden desk while a volunteer held up a cellphone flashlight.

She seemed to have survived the eruptions by taking shelter in a large gutter. The surrounding village above ground was destroyed, Laurent said.

The group, made up of volunteers from animal welfare organizations, was deployed for the second time on Friday after some pet owners made a desperate appeal on social media to evacuate their pets. Since then, she has rescued “many” animals, she added.

An AFP journalist at the scene said more than a dozen animals had been rescued since Friday.

Some owners had learned that their pets were alive after seeing them in photos from Ruang Island in the media.

‘Their lives matter’

Authorities had ordered locals to evacuate outside a seven-kilometer exclusion zone around the crater, which was lowered to five kilometers on Sunday, with around 11,000 people earmarked for evacuation.

More than 5,000 people had been evacuated from Tagulandang by Saturday, the National Disaster Management Agency said on Sunday, while all residents of Ruang – more than 800 – had been transferred for permanent relocation.

Authorities had warned of possible flying rocks, lava flows and tsunamis from debris sliding into the sea.

But despite the risk, the volunteers got to work.

One climbed over the fence of an abandoned house to rescue several dogs abandoned by their owner before being handed over to vet Hendrikus Hermawan.

Hendrikus said the owner asked volunteers for help in rescuing the dogs, including a five-month-old puppy.

Many of the rescued animals appeared hungry and stressed after their owners abandoned them, he told AFP.

“The first treatment we do here is to give them food and extra vitamins to relieve their stress,” he said, adding that the animals could survive as long as they were fed.

The volunteers want to rescue all the dogs, cats and birds threatened by the volcano, bring them to Manado and reunite them with their original owners, Laurent said.

Although the focus of the eruptions was initially on the human impact, the volunteer said animals should not be forgotten.

“Our main focus is on the animals. Many people have already received help, but these animals had no help,” she said.

“To me, their lives are important. We consider them part of our family.”