As Louisiana’s ranchlands burn, evacuating livestock becomes an around-the-clock mission

Lauren Little pokes her head into the small office at the Beauregard Parish Arena that has become the de facto headquarters of the mission to rescue livestock from the ever-encroaching fires threatening Beauregard and Vernon parishes. “We’ve got 70 heads of cattle, where do you want to put them?” Little, a 24-year-old college student from DeRidder asks her best friend and fellow volunteer, Marley Hazlett. Clipboard in hand, Little marches back outside, headed toward the gate through which hundreds of heads of cattle have been driven over the past 24...