An Ark For Pets In Peril

By DAVID LIGHTMAN / Washington Bureau Chief

April 14 2006

WASHINGTON -- Voices rarely heard around the Capitol - barking, meowing, neighing - are finally getting attention, and as a result, Congress is poised to adopt strong new safeguards for evacuating pets during disasters.

The House will vote soon, perhaps later this month, on legislation sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays, R-4th District, and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., that would require state and local governments to include pets in their disaster preparedness plans. If they did not, they would not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency money.

Crafted in response to the wrenching pictures of people separated from their pets during and after Hurricane Katrina, the bill has drawn no serious opposition - and has created a rare sight.

"Republicans and Democrats have come together the way they rarely do on other issues, because almost everyone had a relationship with a pet," said Sara Amundson, legislative director for the Doris Day Animal League.

Animals have long been welcomed in Washington - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's Portuguese water dog, Splash, is a familiar sight in the halls of the Capitol, and presidents dating back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose Scottie Fala became famous during World War II as he sat by his master's side, have embraced and spotlighted their dogs. Sixty-three percent of U.S. households have at least one pet.

Shays, co-chairman of Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus, first became passionate about pets when he was in the fourth grade. His parents had bought a new house, and told Chris and his brothers there was not enough money for Christmas presents.

He was eating a dinner of scrambled eggs on Christmas Eve when his parents arrived home and surprised him with a tri-colored collie. "I spent the whole night sleeping on the floor with that collie," Shays recalled.

Like others in Congress and around the country, Shays was moved by last year's grim pictures and stories of animals abandoned and of owners forced to leave their beloved pets behind, as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. An estimated 600,000 animals either died or had no shelter during and after the storm, and even today, owners are still being reunited with pets.

In a typical disaster, about 80 percent of people who are asked to leave their homes find shelter with family members, said Wayne E. Sandford, Connecticut deputy director of emergency management and homeland security. Fifteen percent go to a shelter, and 5 percent stay home.

While he knew of no scientific analysis as to why people refuse to leave home, he said - and other experts agreed - that a large percentage do not want to be separated from their pets.

"Hurricane Katrina taught us that many people will not evacuate if they will have to leave pets behind," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is investigating the government's response to the storm.

Prior to Katrina, emergency officials had few guidelines to follow when dealing with pets. "There was no national policy that said animals matter," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States.

States also provided little guidance on dealing with pets in disaster situations prior to Katrina. "At local levels of government there was an awareness and in the animal care community there was an awareness that something had to be done," said Dr. Arnold L. Goldman, immediate past president of the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association, "but a lack of funding has been an impediment."

Connecticut officials have been meeting since the summer to plan a region-by-region approach to pet protection, with the state divided into five regions.

In the towns surrounding Hartford, a new State Animal Response Team headed by Goldman plans to have two 24-foot trailers available when a disaster strikes; the plan is modeled after one developed by North Carolina following a 1999 hurricane.

The small animal response unit, used primarily for cats, birds and dogs, would have 500 portable kennels, 1,000 bowls and a "deployable shelter," a temporary structure to house some animals. The trailer would travel to a fixed shelter site and officials would set up a facility for animals.

People evacuating their homes would be instructed to drive to the shelter with their pets. Evacuees would get beds in the permanent shelter - which typically would not take animals for health and safety reasons - and their pets would be nearby, perhaps in the temporary facility or an adjacent garage, gym or parking lot.

Pets would be housed in kennels, and evacuees would help provide labor, perhaps taking shifts feeding the animals and helping with other activities.

Goldman still has some problems to work out, notably what to do with larger animals. Connecticut has an unusually large number of horses, he said, and while a trailer could accommodate them, he's not sure where they would go. "Animal owners will be urged to take an individual approach to planning."

Even the dogs and cats could prove problematic, because it would be impossible to transport every small animal in the state to a shelter. Goldman is counting on most people taking their own pets with them and heading to a family member's home.

He hopes to have the program ready by the end of the summer, and nine other states are developing similar plans. Twelve already have such plans in place, but the rest of the states have yet to develop anything.

That's about to change. Shays' bill won unanimous approval from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee April 5, and is expected to encounter little opposition on the House floor.

In the Senate, lawmakers want to go further and require FEMA to help pay for state and local shelters where pets and their owners would wait out a storm or other disaster.

FEMA is taking no position on the legislation. Aaron Walker, an agency spokesman, said, "FEMA recognizes the challenges for those evacuating with pets, and we encourage local and state officials to plan their evacuations accordingly."

Shays said no serious opposition to the bill is likely to emerge. "When you see those pictures from Katrina of young children who have lost their home and then their pets are yanked away from them," he said, "it gets people's attention."

Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant