Do You Have a Pet Emergency Evacuation Plan?

The spooky incident with my neighbor’s fire yesterday got me to thinking about emergency evacuation plans. Namely, how I don’t have one. Which was something I’d never really considered before. Have you? Sure, I had thought about how to help Murph and the cats if I wasn’t there by posting an I.C.E sticker. But I’d never really considered what I’d do if I was there during the emergency. For some, like my neighbor Cindy, the question isn’t a hypothetical one. She’s got real-life experience in two types of scenarios. One where the danger was imminent and another where it’s urgent … Continue reading

Pet Evacuation Bill in Congress

Representative Tom Lantos from California has sponsored the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, which was voted on by the House of Representatives on Monday. Lantos says that this piece of legislation was inspired by an image you may or may not remember from the Hurricane Katrina disaster: a little boy wailing as his dog Snowball was taken away from him. The idea of the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act is to require that emergency preparedness officials at the state and local level include pets and service animals in all evacuation plans. Preparedness offices that fail to include animals … Continue reading