An Exploratory Study on Accompanying Companion Animals during Disaster Evacuations

Abstract

This study deduced improvement measures such as institutional deficiencies and improvement points for accompanying animals during disaster evacuation. As a result of using the AHP analysis technique for experts, the most important factors were factors that improved public awareness, such as developing promotional contents for companion animals and strengthening trust in the government. The population living with companion animals in Korea is continuously increasing, and it is judged that the issue of companion animals accompanying disaster shelters in the event of a disaster will become an issue in the future disaster and response field. Social consensus on companion animal standards is needed, and it is necessary to establish the concept of livestock and companion animal ranges and boundaries. This study is meaningful in that it presents the direction of experts' perceptions and the government's direction for measuring items of system and policy improvement, operational plan improvement, and public awareness improvement in companion animal accompaniment in disaster evacuation following a disaster.