Do You Know Human Beings Are Not The Only Victims When Hurricanes Strike? ( read here)
@@@@@@@@@@@@
when they arrived they found that the cats would be forced to
stay in a small room with a group of loud, barking dogs.
"It was maybe the most difficult decision I've made in my
entire life," said Clevenger, 47, who lives with Hudek, 48, in
Bradenton, Fla. "I had the choice of either putting our three
cats through that, or sheltering with our friends and hoping we
could withstand the storm."
Their dilemma is all-too-common. Pet owners facing a natural
disaster often have to compromise their own safety to make
sure their furry friends are safe, according to the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Unfortunately, a new ASPCA study reports that many states
and counties do not have adequate emergency response
plans for the care of animals during a natural disaster.
Fewer than a third of U.S. counties that regularly face natural
disasters have an animal response team in place to help
address the needs of pets, farm animals and their owners in
an emergency, said lead author Vic Spain, an epidemiologist
and consultant for the ASPCA.
A significant number of counties also don't have plans in
place for emergency shelters where people can either stay
with their animals or shelter their animals elsewhere in the
facility, the study found.
These plans can be the difference between life and death in
an emergency, Spain said. About 56 percent of homes have at
least one pet, and most people don't want to leave their furry
family members behind.
"From previous studies, we know that people with pets are
more likely than people without pets to refuse to evacuate in
an emergency situation -- putting their lives, as well as the
lives of the people sent to rescue them, in danger," Spain
said.
Hudek and Clevinger decided a couple days before Irma
struck Florida this week that they would ride out the storm at
home. They were worried they would run out of gas while
evacuating the state, and be trapped in their car with their
cats.
But then Irma changed tracks. Instead of coming up Florida's
east coast, it instead veered to the west coast. "We realized
the storm tracker had Irma coming through our neighborhood
as a category 4 hurricane," Hudek said.
The couple made arrangements to stay at a shelter in a
nearby elementary school. On Sunday morning, as the storm
began its march up Florida, they packed their cats into carriers
and headed to the shelter.
Once in the shelter, they found that all the pets people brought
were being put in one small room. Their cats would not be
able to get out of their carriers to eat, drink or use the litter
box, and they would be subjected to loud barking from
stressed-out dogs.
"We thought we'd be able to stay with our cats and sleep with
our cats, and that's just not how it is," Hudek said.
So the couple instead decided to stay at a friend's house,
even though they were worried it would not be as safe as the
shelter. They found an interior bathroom, and they and their
pets huddled there until the storm's fury subsided.
They and their pets made it safely through the hurricane, but
others in earlier storms were not as lucky.
More than 15,500 pets in New Orleans needed to be rescued
after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the ASPCA said. Four out
of five of the animals were never reunited with their owners.
State and local governments have been urged in the years
since Katrina to include animals in emergency planning, but
Spain and his colleagues found serious gaps in response
plans:
Only 30 percent of counties with a regular track record of
disasters -- more than 30 emergencies within the past six
decades -- have an animal response team in place.
Only 48 percent of large counties and 23 percent of small
counties in the U.S. have an animal response team for
disaster preparedness.
Half of small counties do not have plans for emergency
shelters that can accommodate people and their pets,
compared with 20 percent of large counties and 27 percent of
states.
Only two out of five small counties have set aside a cache of
supplies for managing dogs and cats in an emergency,
compared with nearly four out of five large counties.
"Organizations at the county or city level are critical for
emergency response to occur quickly enough to prevent
animal emergencies," Spain said. "It is important to remove
barriers to evacuation."
"In our experience with Hurricane Sandy, residents were more
likely to comply with evacuation orders when pet friendly
emergency shelters were available, their presence was known
to local residents, and pet-friendly transportation to the
shelters was offered," Spain continued, referring to the 2012
superstorm that ransacked the northeastern United States.
Why aren't better plans in place? In some cases, local
emergency preparedness staff may not be aware of the need
to include pets and livestock in their planning, Spain said.
Some counties also reported that they didn't have enough
money to cover planning for animals in an emergency, Spain
continued. Other locales may have become complacent
because they've gone a long time without a disaster occurring
in their area.
The Gulf Coast Humane Society is a part of Florida's animal
response team network, and the help it provided pet owners
prior to Irma revealed the value of planning, executive director
Jennifer Galloway said.
Just before the storm, the Fort Meyers animal welfare
organization made available 200 pet crates for anyone to take,
whether or not they left a donation, Galloway said.
"They were gone within hours," Galloway said. "I think what
people are seeing after Katrina and Harvey is they want to be
with their pets. They want to keep their animals safe."
Although planning is important, Galloway isn't sure that the
situation Hudek and Clevinger faced at their shelter can
always be avoided.
"It's probably always going to be an issue, because at the last
minute people are scrambling to open up shelters," Galloway
said. "While it might not be ideal for cats and dogs to be in
the same room, at least they're safe."
The ASPCA study appears in the Journal of Homeland Security
and Emergency Management.
SOURCES: Judi Hudek and David Clevinger, Bradenton, Fla.;
Vic Spain, Ph.D., an epidemiologist and consultant for the
ASPCA; Jennifer Galloway, executive director of the Gulf
Coast Humane Society
No comments: