TAGULANDANG – People have fled from a remote Indonesian island where a volcano recently unleashed huge eruptions but some folk have braved the dangers to rescue abandoned animals.
Mount Ruang in the country’s northernmost region has erupted more than half a dozen times since April 16, stirring a spectacular mix of ash, lava and lightning that forced the island’s residents to be permanently relocated and thousands more evacuated.
But a team of volunteers have travelled to Ruang by boat to retrieve abandoned pets from the foot of the volcano that remains at its highest alert level.
“We know that they (the animals) are still living there. How can we let them die while we know they are still alive there?” volunteer Laurent Tan, 31, told AFP on May 4.
The owner of two animal shelters in North Sulawesi province capital Manado is one of eight volunteers who have made the six-hour ferry journey several times to Ruang’s neighbouring Tagulandang island following the eruptions.
On one of their missions to the island’s ash-covered homes, they came across a pup, a white cat and a bright turquoise-and-white tropical bird.
The dog, a female with burns on the face and body, was taken to a makeshift shelter on Tagulandang, where a veterinarian treated it on a wooden desk while a volunteer held up a mobile phone’s flashlight.
The animal appeared to have survived the eruptions by taking shelter in a large gutter.
The group, made up of volunteers from animal welfare organisations, deployed for a second time on May 3 after some pet owners made desperate social media appeals for them to evacuate their pets.
An AFP journalist at the scene said more than a dozen animals had been rescued since May 3.
Some owners learnt their pets were still alive after seeing them in pictures of Ruang island in the media.
