Dogs, birds, and a mud-covered calf were among the animals rescued in southeastern Brazil where 55 people have died after torrential rains unleashed flooding and landslides.
Cities in the state of Minas Gerais were again on high alert Thursday as fresh rain fell, forcing a new scramble to rescue pets abandoned as residents fled in their thousands in the first wave of foods.
"People have to run away and they don't have time to grab their pets. It's up to us to save them from the rubble, examine them, and then return them to their owners," veterinarian Marina Souza told AFP in the city of Juiz de Fora, where she rescued about 15 dogs on Thursday.
One of them, a dog named Benny, belonged to an 11-year-old boy who was killed in a landslide, she recounted, her voice trembling.
Alferina Maria, 45, had to leave her dog Paquito behind when she left her hillside home in the neighborhood of Tres Moinhos , but he was rescued by firefighters and returned to her on Thursday.
"They told us to just take our ID cards to get out of danger as quickly as possible, but I was worried about Paquito. He belonged to my late mother."
Another resident of the neighborhood, Gina Lourenço de Souza, 46, descended a steep, mud-covered alleyway carrying two cages full of birds.
When the landslide happened she only managed to take her cat and two cockatiels -- a kind of small parrot -- with her, leaving the rest of her "babies" behind.
"My mother, my daughter, my husband, and I are safe, but my family also includes furry and feathered friends," she said.
On Thursday, firefighters released a video of a calf covered in mud being rescued from a disaster zone.
Thirteen people are still missing after torrential rains late Monday caused landslides that buried dozens of people and unleashed flooding in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Uba.
Firefighters say there is all but no chance of finding them alive.
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