How RedRover Responders volunteers support animals in the face of natural disasters
September 12th, 2023
By Beth Gammie, Director of Field Services
We are in the midst of disaster season, with wildfires burning all over the country, and right in the aftermath of a major hurricane – Idalia – which just hit the Florida coast. All this destruction is hard to watch; and if you love animals it is even harder because of how their homes and families are directly impacted by fires, hurricanes, and other storms. But there is a way you can actively help to relieve their suffering – by deploying as a RedRover Responders volunteer during a disaster.
RedRover Responders volunteers are crucial in helping animals (and their people) impacted by natural disasters. Often we’re on the ground helping just days after disaster strikes. Our teams care for evacuated pets, and also animals rescued from the field, providing daily care, helping with intake and reunification, and managing supply and food donations. We work in emergency animal shelters set up in impacted communities; sometimes we are stationed at a community’s brick and mortar shelter caring for evacuated and rescued animals.
Wherever the setting, we know we are making a difference. Animals come in scared and upset, but they soon calm down when they see they are safe and cared for. If their people are staying at a shelter for humans, we see the joy when their family comes to visit, and even more joy when they finally go home with them at the end of the disaster.
Our team of volunteers can also help by being personally prepared for disasters. They see firsthand the devastation that natural disasters bring and need to evacuate with their own pets. Being prepared for a disaster, as a pet owner, means being ready and able to evacuate with all your animals – including a cage or carrier for every animal, a plan of where to go, and your animals’ vaccination records and medications. For more tips see our Pet Disaster Preparedness Page!
By deploying as a volunteer during a disaster, and by being personally prepared for disaster, Responders volunteers are doing their part in helping animals in natural disasters now and far into the future.
