Cats, dogs and horses: Rescuing the pets caught in France’s wildfires

The "Cabanes de Tchanquées" – a canine boarding facility in the town of Créon on the northern outskirts of Bordeaux – is packed to the brim. Dogs bark on its grounds and occasionally, a few meows pierce through the din. The facility doesn’t normally house cats but the raging wildfires in the Gironde region have seen the kennel transformed into a vast refuge for pets. Rapidly moving wildfires have burned their way through an area four times the size of Paris, incinerating forests and homes and forcing thousands to evacuate without much warning. Amid the panic of the evacuations, many owners of cats, dogs and horses grappled with the dilemma of what to do with their pets. Leave them behind, at the risk of them being poisoned by the fumes and without knowing when it would be possible to collect them? Or take them with them, even though they didn’t know where to go or what the conditions would be like. In the scramble to evacuate, many left their pets behind. Read moreAs fires still blaze, France thinks about how to rebuild its forests The owners of "Cabanes de Tchanquées" saw what was happening and stepped in. On July 25, David Avril and his wife Mary-Line – the owners of the property...