After participating in a two-day, hands-on training in “Sheltering animals in a disaster” given by the Humane Society, I was struck by the fact that a large number of people either refuse to be evacuated from, or will actually re-enter, very dangerous disaster sites because the emergency shelters will not accept beloved companion animals (mostly dogs and cats) and people are thus forced to either leave them to die or risk their own lives to save them.
The regional head of FEMA was there to verify this fact.
FEMA knows this and still they seem baffled why perhaps 10,000 people refuse to leave the flooded cesspools that used to be their homes.
Partner National Guard crews with crews from one the many highly trained animal rescue organizations and you will have thousands of people out of there in one day.
Set up shelters that both pets and their guardians can go to and the people will take care of their own animals (and each other) requiring far fewer staff to run than either a people-only or animal-only shelter.
Animal organizations are just about coming out of their skins to help and they are not being allowed to.
This administration is behaving as if they have little clue about how to deal with this situation.
Somehow, I am not surprised.
Eric Ofsthus
Everett
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