Heidi Poor, a Project Starfish volunteer, just checked in from New Orleans and things are bad, really bad. She reports that as the city begins rebuilding, thousands of animals are still roaming the streets. Most of the unfortunate creatures still have owners looking for them, but the hope of ever reuniting these animals with their humans is dwindling every day. Once again, red tape and a bottleneck are to blame. The group Heidi is with is unable to bring in any dogs to Best Friends because it is full. Why is it full? Because there is nowhere to take the animals. Once again, this could be greatly helped if the State of Massachusetts stopped sticking its head in the sand and did something to help. To date, Massachusetts has only taken in 39 dogs from Katrina. This is woefully inadequate and in fact it is quite embarrassing. Project Starfish is headquartered in Mass and we once again ask why our home state is refusing to do what it should. We have hundreds of foster homes for these animals. It makes no sense that Mass is refusing to be a better citizen of this country. The excuse we have heard is that it is too expensive, but the Massachusetts Animal Collation has raised thousands. And what about the millions donated to the Humane Society of the United States. Project Starfish has hundreds of animals with the $25,000 we raised. Why can we do it with $25,000 and they can’t with millions? If you are a resident of Mass, we urge you to call Brad Mitchell of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture and ask him why our state is not helping. His number is 617-626-1771. He is a state employee and he works for you. You have every right to tell him your opinion.