Abstract
Simple SummaryThis article describes common challenges to managing animals in disasters in the US, summarizes how some of these challenges are being met and makes recommendations on how to overcome others. Many predictable adverse situations affecting animals and their owners can be prevented when communities develop a comprehensive emergency management strategy that integrates animal care into planning, preparedness, mitigation, and recovery activities, as well as response.Common to many of the repeated issues surrounding animals in disasters in the U.S. is a pre-existing weak animal health infrastructure that is under constant pressure resulting from pet overpopulation. Unless this root cause is addressed, communities remain vulnerable to similar issues with animals they and others have faced in past disasters. In the US the plight of animals in disasters is frequently viewed primarily as a response issue and frequently handled by groups that are not integrated with the affected community’s emergency management. In contrast, animals, their owners, and communities would greatly benefit from integrating animal issues into an overall emergency management strategy for the community. 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. Emergency managers can take advantage of the bond people have with their animals to instill appropriate behavior amongst pet owners in disasters.
Highlights
In the last decade there have been many large-scale disasters that have raised awareness of the needs of animals in disasters [1], and there have been many more local, small-scale incidents that have passed without being given great attention
In this article we propose that applying the principles of emergency management to the care of animals in disasters leads to improvements of public and animal health that are sustainable and will likely reduce the incidence of animal issues arising in disasters
Common to many of these issues is a weak animal health infrastructure because of chronic pressure from pet overpopulation. Unless this root cause is addressed, the communities remain vulnerable to similar challenges they and others have faced in past disasters
Summary
In the last decade there have been many large-scale disasters that have raised awareness of the needs of animals in disasters [1], and there have been many more local, small-scale incidents that have passed without being given great attention. The issues affecting animals during the response to disasters are rarely new, they are rather mostly exacerbations of pre-existing conditions. We will try to elucidate the connections between pre-existing conditions that give rise to typical issues seen during the response to disasters and give examples of how a comprehensive emergency management strategy could mitigate commonly occurring issues affecting animals in disasters. In this article we propose that applying the principles of emergency management to the care of animals in disasters leads to improvements of public and animal health that are sustainable and will likely reduce the incidence of animal issues arising in disasters. Through an understanding of what each of these phases entails we intend to guide the reader to gain insight into the value of applying a comprehensive emergency management strategy to the care of animals in disasters
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