Arkansas Residents Threatened by Flooding Encouraged to Evacuate with Pets
United Animal Nations warns that animals left behind can be injured, fall ill, starve, die, and hamper human evacuation and rescue efforts
Families that evacuate are encouraged to:
- Assemble an animal disaster kit that includes food, water, medications, a leash or cat carrier, and photos of animals with family members to prove ownership if they are lost. Visit www.uan.org for more disaster preparedness tips.
- Identify all animals with a tag so they can be more easily reunited if separated.
- Seek refuge in a hotel that allows pets. Most hotels and motels are pet-friendly, and those that aren’t often make exceptions during disasters. A searchable database of pet-friendly accommodations is available at www.petswelcome.com or www.petfriendlyhotelsandtravel.com.
- Leave animals with friends or relatives or board them at a professional kennel safely out of the flood’s reach.
“Animals left to fend for themselves during floods suffer terribly, and evacuees can compound their own stress by worrying about the pets they left behind,” said UAN president Nicole Forsyth. “For both human and animal safety, it is vital that every family include their pets in their evacuation plans.”
Through its volunteer-driven Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS) , UAN provides free services for communities that become overwhelmed by natural disasters or other crises, including setting up and operating temporary animal relief shelters; evacuating animals from the disaster site; feeding and caring for displaced animals; distributing food and supplies to the community; and reuniting lost animals with their caregivers and finding new homes for unclaimed animals.
Emergency management and animal control agencies in
Founded in 1987, United Animal Nations (UAN) is
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