Emergency Planning Is For Pets Too
Failure to include pets in emergency
planning puts human lives at risk.
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| Photo: eAlisa/Shutterstock.com |
By Zazie Todd, PhD
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“There is no other factor contributing as
much to human evacuation failure in disasters that is under the control of
emergency management when a threat is imminent as pet ownership.” So say
Sebastian Heath
(FEMA) and Robert Linnabary
(University of Tennessee) in a review of
the ways in which pets should be included in emergency planning.
Emergency management has five stages:
planning, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It is important to
include pets at all stages so that people with pets are more likely to evacuate
if necessary. The human-animal bond can also encourage people to prepare for
disasters, since they may be motivated to plan for their pet even if not for
themselves.
Strong emergency planning also entails
having a good start point, which is not currently the case for animals in the
US. Shelters and rescues struggle to cope with the existing number of strays
and unwanted pets, with millions of cats and dogs euthanized annually.
One
consequence is there is no spare capacity that could be utilized in an
emergency. Another is that in a disaster, organizations would have to assume
stray pets are unwanted, rather than separated from their people, because this
is already the case during normal times.
One thing everyone can do to help mitigate
disasters is simply not to have more animals than you can care for. The authors
suggest this is backed up by local bylaws prohibiting too many pets. If people
are struggling to provide proper care for their animals, they will struggle
even more during an emergency.
Once people have three or more pets, the
proportion who will evacuate falls substantially (unless they also have
children). Another reason is that during an evacuation, you might have to care
for the animals on your own at the shelter.
Many emergency shelters will not take pets.
Heath and Lannabary say, “Although most evacuees are able to find a place to
stay on their own, prior identification of a pet-friendly shelter where owners
can find temporary shelter for themselves and housing for their pets provides
further encouragement to pet owners to evacuate with their pets.”
They suggest emergency planners provide
free leashes and cardboard pet carriers to those who have to evacuate, and that
shelters have a designated area for working dogs (like search and rescue dogs)
to rest between shifts. In the US, the National Fire Protection Association’s Standard for Mass Evacuation and Sheltering, due to be implemented in 2017, includes a section on service animals and
pets.
Communication following emergencies should
include positive stories of people who have successfully evacuated with their
pets, as this will encourage others to follow suit. Failing to evacuate pets
can lead to dangerous attempts at rescue. In one chemical spill, about 20% of
evacuees later tried to return to rescue pets they had left behind.
News stories about disasters typically
focus on the response, rather than the whole picture. Heath and Linnabary say,
“Stories of the plight of animals in disasters are common in the media and often described as being solely the result of the disaster. However, disasters rarely create new situations, in most cases, disasters simply expose underlying systemic vulnerabilities.”
Following a natural disaster, there is
often an outpouring of support. Heath and Linnabary say it is important to have
plans to ensure support is appropriate, for example that monies go to
organizations that will account for how it is spent, and that items donated are
ones that will be useful.
Requests should come via official channels and they
also point out that, in the absence of an appropriate official response, other
organizations will step in, sometimes in ways that suit their own ends rather
than the local community.
Many people are willing to help animals in
a disaster. Emergency planning should include a volunteer coordinator who can
assess the suitability of volunteers and match them to tasks, as well as
training for relevant people within the community (such as animal shelter and veterinary
staff). FEMA has credentialed courses for Animal Emergency Responders
specializing in e.g. companion animals, equines, or livestock, and other useful
courses on topics such as Animals in Disasters.
If you live in an area prone to natural
hazards such as wildfires or earthquakes, you can make plans for such events
that include your pets, such as having an emergency preparedness kit for your
animals. Here are some useful suggestions from The Red Cross, the Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team, and the Humane Society of the United States.
One of the lessons of this paper is that solving existing vulnerabilities for companion animals is important for resilience in an emergency.
The full paper is essential reading for
anyone interested in emergency planning (open access, link below).
Have you thought about how you would look
after your pets in an emergency?
Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, writes The Pawsitive Post premium newsletter, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and two cats.
Useful links:
Reference
Heath, S., & Linnabary, R. (2015). Challenges of Managing Animals in Disasters in the U.S. Animals, 5 (2), 173-192 DOI: 10.3390/ani5020173
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