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:

• Bring pets along when they evacuate. Never leave pets behind to fend for themselves in a hurricane.
• Identify a place ahead of time to evacuate with pets. The best choice is to stay with friends or family outside of the impacted zone, or to make your own arrangements elsewhere. Many hotels and motels are pet-friendly, and those that aren’t often make exceptions during natural disasters. A database of pet-friendly accommodations is available at www.dogwonderful.com, www.petswelcome.com, or www.petfriendlyhotelsandtravel.com. Emergency shelters are a last resort option.
• Identify all pets. Affix a collar with ID tag containing mobile phone number or temporary contact number (such as the phone number of a hotel or relative) to each pet so they can be more easily reunited if lost.
• Assemble an animal disaster kit that includes food, water, medications, a leash or cat carrier for each pet, and photos of each animal with family members to prove ownership if they are lost.
• Bring pets indoors during severe weather. When left out during a storm, pets can be injured by debris or downed power lines, or become frightened and escape.

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.