CULTIVATING COMPASSION Disaster Preparedness for Animals
BY HOWARD EDELSTEIN There are more than 358 million companion animals in the United States, residing in 63 percent of American households. According to a poll by Zogby International, sixty one percent of animal guardians say they would refuse to evacuate if they could not take their companion animals with them. The lack of emergency preparedness for animals in New Orleans was a major factor leading to a substantial number of preventable deaths from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. An estimated 50,000 com - panion animals were left stranded without food or water, their guard- ians expecting to return to them in two or three days. Conversely, to those people who left their companion animals behind, many animal guardians, knowing their animals could not accompany them, chose to stay in their homes, putting more lives in jeopardy and further com- plicating rescue efforts. Hurricane Katrina made all of us aware of how little planning had gone into assisting animals, and people with animals, when disasters strike. Since then, a great deal has been done to plan for animals and their guardians during a disaster. Much more still needs to be accom - plished, which includes further educating the public. The most important accomplishment by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pertaining to animal preparedness is the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act of 2006. The PETS Act requires that local and state emergency preparedness authorities include plans for companion and service animals in their disaster plans in order to qualify for grants from FEMA. FEMA has also put together a great deal of very useful emergency preparedness
Howard first meeting Isaac in New Orleans (left), and with Isaac all grown up a year later living at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville, MD (right). information pertaining to animals. Much of this information can be found on www.ready.gov/pets. Emergency preparedness for animals pertains not solely to compan- ion animals, but also farmed animals. While it is not always realistic to evacuate large numbers of farmed animals, every effort should be made to keep them safe. This includes mitigation to reduce the se- verity of a disaster, such as by stocking enough food and water to last several days, and, to the extent possible, planning for their relocation: identifying where the animals can be taken, arranging transportation, and mapping alternate routes. If, at the time of the disaster, it is not
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30—PATHWAYS—Winter 24-25
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