As East Coast residents endure the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the coming days, RedRover encourages residents to bring their pets with them when they evacuate. Animals left behind during hurricanes can get injured, fall ill, starve, drown from flooding, die, and hamper human evacuation and rescue efforts.
Families threatened by flooding, wind and other storm damage are encouraged to:
Find more disaster tips at www.redrover.org/disastertips
“For both human and animal safety, people should never their pets behind when disaster strikes,” said RedRover President and CEO Nicole Forsyth. “Animals left to fend for themselves during floods or other catastrophes suffer terribly, and evacuees can compound their own stress by worrying about the pets they left at home.”
Through its volunteer-driven RedRover Responders program, RedRover provides free temporary sheltering for communities that become overwhelmed by natural disasters or animal cruelty seizures. RedRover sent trained emergency sheltering volunteers from across several Gulf states to care for animal victims of Hurricane Isaac earlier this year.
MEDIA CONTACT: Leili Khalessi, 916.429.2457 or lkhalessi@redrover.org
Now celebrating its 25th year, RedRover focuses on bringing animals out of crisis and strengthening the bond between people and animals through a variety of programs, including emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance and education. The volunteer-driven RedRover Responders program has provided free temporary sheltering services to more than 120 communities overwhelmed with animals displaced by natural disaster or rescued from large-scale cruelty cases.