Don’t leave pets behind, says PETA, but do policymakers care?

As Typhoon Carina swept across the Philippine Sea towards Taiwan and the Chinese coast earlier this week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known by its acronym PETA, issued an urgent appeal to people in the countries in the storm’s path not to leave their pets behind if they needed to evacuate because of flooding or landslides. The appeal was a fresh reminder of the lack of consideration for pets and, indeed, animals in general in rescue and evacuation plans drawn up by civil authorities around the globe. This is the case even in the USA, where two out of three households has at least one pet, according to latest estimates, and where Congress passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006.

The PETS Act requires that states and localities include pets in evacuation and sheltering plans. But the development and implementation of pet evacuation and sheltering plans during disasters remains widely insufficient, if it is even addressed at all, a recent article by veterinarian and disaster rescue volunteer Robin Chadwin pointed out.

The PETS Act itself was the outcome of the situation that developed when Hurricane Katrina struck the southern coast of the USA in 2004. First responders reportedly refused to allow residents to evacuate their pets with them. Others mistakenly believed they would be able to return to their homes to rescue their beloved companions in a few days.

Ultimately, about 250,000 pets were left behind during the evacuation, and estimates say up to 150,000 pets perished. What’s more, of those pets that were rescued, almost 85% were never reunited with their owners, according to a survey on the country’s capabilities for animal response in emergencies.

As Chadwin pointed out in his article, the failure to include pets when evacuating a community struck by, or in the path of, disaster is an issue of public health and safety. One of the most common threats to human safety is failure to comply with orders to evacuate, and pet owners are particularly prone to disobey such orders. This refusal to leave may be due to several factors, including that owners may be told they cannot take their pets with them, are unsure where to take their animals since many emergency shelters and hotels do not allow pets, or lack access to a way to transport pets or supplies.

A small but telling example of the situation is available currently in Bombay, where some balconies of a dilapidated five-storeyed building, Rubinissa Manzil, on Sleater Road near Tardeo collapsed last Saturday, killing a passerby. A day before the collapse, officials of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority had initiated a move to demolish Mistry Apartments, a neighbouring building that is also nearly a century old and in just as poor a condition. The process had to be put on hold as an informal shelter for stray animals that need special attention is being run on the ground floor of the building by a fashion designer in association with a local resident. The shelter houses 48 stray dogs and 30 stray cats, according to a report in local newspaper Mid-Day.

While the authority is in touch with the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika, or Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay, to relocate the animals, the fact remains that there is no policy in place with regard to the evacuation of pets or animals dependent on human support in emergency situations. As the number of pet owners in India increases every year, this is a position that is increasingly untenable. It should not require another disaster of the scale of Katrina for public authorities in India to wake up.

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