‘Mother Nature Needs A Xanax’: Animals Struggle In Texas Cold

ACROSS TEXAS — The misery and suffering in cold weather that overwhelmed the Texas power grid aren’t limited to the millions of people who lost electricity.

Thousands of sea turtles have been plucked from the unusually chilly sea surrounding South Padre Island, and the resort town’s convention center was turned into a shelter after its neighbor, the rescue and rehabilitation group Sea Turtle Inc., reached capacity.

“Every 15 minutes or less, there’s another truck or SUV that pulls up,” Ed Caum, the executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The Associated Press Wednesday.

The turtles often come in one or two at a time, also by the dozens, he said, noting, “We had trailers full yesterday coming in that had 80, 100, 50.”

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Like other reptiles, sea turtles can’t regulate their body temperature. They become lethargic and are unable to swim in water that drops below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature in the shallow bays and inlets of Laguna Madre on the west side of the island can suddenly drop when a cold front moves through, according to the National Park Service. That gives sea turtles precious little time to reach the deeper, warmer Gulf of Mexico waters before they become cold-stunned.

Caum said 3,500 turtles have been “collected” so far, explaining to The AP his reluctance to use the word “rescued” because “we know we’re going to lose some.”

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Power has returned to the convention center, and the temperature inside has been restored to 60 degrees — a healthy environment for the turtles. With another cold front approaching Texas, it could be the weekend before the sea turtles can be safely returned to the Gulf.

About 300 miles north in the San Antonio area, power has been restored to a primate sanctuary reeling from the cold-weather deaths of dozens of its residents, including monkeys, lemurs and a 58-year-old self-aware chimpanzee named Violet rescued from biomedical research.

“She was young at heart, outgoing and spirited,” Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, which has managed the sanctuary since 2007, said in a statement. “She loved to explore her habitat, which sits up on a hill overlooking the pond at Primarily Primates, where she had a great view of waterfowl and other wildlife. Violet, who was used in biomedical research, also liked watching movies and looking at her reflection in her care staff member’s iPhone selfie mode.”

A small army of volunteers organized meetups and drove their four-wheel-drive vehicles through treacherous conditions to deliver supplies to the sanctuary, and the San Antonio Zoo is helping to care for the evacuated animals.

“Their kindness brings some comfort during this nightmare,” Feral said in the statement. “They are heroes, and so are our staff members. ... Every animal matters to us, and we are devastated.”

Primarily Primates said Violet most likely died after suffering a stroke rather than from hypothermia.

A Houston dog owner was arrested and faces animal cruelty charges after he left eight dogs outside for days without access to shelter, the Houston Humane Society said. One has a broken jaw, all are severely malnourished, and they’re being cared for at the shelter, according to a report from news station KHOU.

Authorities in Houston found six dogs abandoned in subfreezing temperatures Monday. One of the dogs found outside a southwest Houston auto shop died and another was found partially buried in the snow, KHOU reported. Both the Houston SPCA and Houston Police Department's Major Offenders division are investigating it as a case of animal cruelty.

“You can’t leave an animal outside in extreme weather to fend for themselves and not have dire consequences like this,” Adam Reynolds, chief animal cruelty investigator for the Houston SPCA, told KHOU. “We have zero tolerance when it comes to cruelty.”

Pet shelters across the vast state were looking for generators. The Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Amarillo opened its doors to wildlife struggling in the cold.

Animal-welfare issues aren’t limited to shelters, sanctuaries and preserves. Scores of cows and calves have perished in the icy blast enveloping Texas, the No. 1 cattle producing state with more than 13 million cattle, Reuters reported. The storm has also killed chickens, shut down meatpacking plant lines and threatened crop production.

Kaylin Isbell, a rancher from Florence, told Reuters her mother-in-law turned a spare bedroom into a sheep nursery after she lost a few newborn calves and lambs to shock after they emerged from their mothers’ wombs covered in amniotic fluids that quickly froze. She’s also looking at a failed crop of oats the cattle would normally graze on, so she’ll have to sell some earlier than expected, cutting into her profits.

“We just keep going,” Isbell told Reuters. “That’s all you can do.”

The weather is also deadly for baby chicks in hatcheries that don’t have enough natural gas to heat them. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Reuters dairy operators had to dump $8 million worth of milk down the drain every day the power is out at processing plants.

It’s a crucial time for fruit and cold-season vegetable growers, whose orange and grapefruit crops were frozen solid and whose cold-season vegetables were nipped. About 80 percent of the orange crop and 66 percent of the grapefruit crop had been harvested, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts.

Extension horticulturist Juan Anciso said the storm is delivering a blow similar to one in December 1989. Temperatures have remained well below the threshold for crops to survive and for a longer period, and “that’s not a good combination for growers,” he said.

Missy Bonds, a rancher in Saginaw, was waiting to see the long-term effects on her family’s cattle herd, too. Respiratory problems could continue to plague her cattle after normal temperatures return.

"Mother Nature needs a Xanax," she told Reuters.