Pets of San Francisco, Earthquake Planners Have You Covered
In a city known for accommodating for pets — where pet dogs, not to mention cats, outnumber the city’s school-age children — and where local laws regulate doghouse architecture, San Francisco emergency planners are working to take care of pets in the next big earthquake.
The planners hope legions of trained pet-disaster responders will help transport household dogs, cats, rodents and reptiles to 125 temporary animal shelters. Injured pets will be treated at a $300,000 mobile animal disaster medical command unit. And thanks to a no-pets-left-behind policy promoted by the city’s department of Animal Care and Control, when people are rescued from collapsed or burning sections of town, their dogs, cats, birds and other animals will most likely be rescued, too.
“Often, rescue workers will tell people to leave their animals. We’re telling them to take their animals with them,” said Kat Brown, deputy director of the city’s Animal Care and Control department. “I don’t think there is any question that they will take animals with them if instructed by authorities. And we consider ourselves authorities on this matter.”
San Francisco’s pet-centric approach to disasters represents the vanguard of a national trend in post-Katrina disaster response that takes pets into ever-greater account.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/us/pets-of-san-francisco-earthquake-planners-have-you-covered.html?_r=1
Good on them!
