Oil Tycoon Airlifts Stranded Animals from Floodwaters

Animal lovers have organized a major airlift of cats and dogs orphaned by Hurricane Katrina.

The first group of nervous and weary travelers left Baton Rouge, La., on Sunday on a chartered Continental Airlines plane. The plane flew first to San Diego, where it dropped off 50 dogs, and then to San Francisco International Airport, where it delivered 30 pooches and 20 kittens, said officials from the Marin, Calif., Humane Society, which is helping shelter the animals.

Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, paid the estimated $50,000 fee to charter the jet on Sunday, and donors are being sought to fund the transportation later this week for another 3,000 animals, with 1,000 each going to the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Houston.