Aid For Pets left in Volcanic Eruption

SANTIAGO - Help is on the way for hundreds of household pets left behind in the wake of a volcano eruption in southern Chile, an animal welfare group said.

The Coalition for Ethical Control of Urban Fauna, which has been critical of the Government's attention to stranded animals, said the Emergency Bureau offered to carry food to pets in Chaiten, a town 10km from the volcano of the same name.

An estimated 450 dogs and 350 cats were left when the town's residents were evacuated after the initial May 2 eruption, the volcano's first in thousands of years.

At a demonstration in Santiago, Alejandra Cassino, the group's representative said: "They asked us to bring food for the pets, and police and soldiers would feed the animals."

The group is lobbying for access and time to save the animals.

>