I contributed to Noah's ark day before yesterday and also Humane society. I finally received an email from La Humane Society and it really sounds rough. She said a couple of the people who had stayed behind with some animals were really scared for their lives because of the criminals.
The Houston SPCA took 260 animals to Houston before Katrina hit, and also offered to take any pets for people and return them later.
It's great to see the response. I truly believe a lot of people stayed because they had no knowledge of resources for their pets. If nothing else, the time and manpower spent for those people after the flooding began would have been saved by helping them with their pets beforehand.