Must read for pet owners in hurricane regions: How to keep your pets safe

The sad thing I read after each hurricane that storms through is the hundreds of pets that become homeless because their owners leave them behind when they evacuate. Here's great article from Weather.com that talks about how to prepare for hurricanes when dealing with your pets.

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/topstories/040804hurricanepets.html?from=tropupd_sidebar



During a hurricane, the safest place for your pet is with you.
Keep your pet safe in a hurricane

Bethany Mitchell, weather.com
July 6, 2005; 8:50 a.m. ET



Preparing for your pet is as essential as preparing for your family when a hurricane is on the way. Since animals generally are not allowed in public shelters, what do you do with your pet when a hurricane is bearing down?

Do not leave your pet at home if you evacuate, urges Jean McNeil, spokeswoman for Animal Control Services in the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina.

"If your home is not safe for you, it's not safe for your pet," says McNeil, "You don't know if your home will be there when you get back, so if you have to evacuate, it's for a reason."

McNeil suggests calling hotels in advance; some may lift restrictions on pets during emergencies. You can also check animal boarding facilities. As a last resort, consider Humane Societies and Animal Control shelters along the coast and inland, but call ahead to check on restrictions. Veterinarians, friends and family that live inland are other options

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If you must evacuate, and you are not allowed to take your pet, do not refuse to evacuate and put yourself, your family, or emergency personnel at additional risk.

It's a tough decision. I have participated in evacuations where there was no hotel for hundreds of miles away -- for Georges, people in my neighborhood, where we were put under MANDATORY evacuation at the last minute with little notice -- had to go all the way to Nashville and Dallas for hotel rooms. I had to go to Memphis myself, where I got the last room in my no pets allowed hotel and I only got that because I was VIP at that hotel. I was able to smuggle in one pet but most had to remain at home in an inner room supplied with food and water. I was given no choice by the authorities. I had to get out, and I had nowhere to go and no way to transport that many pets. Fortunately, my pets came through fine although the canaries somehow got loose and had a canary party.

It scares me when I hear people say they won't evacuate because of a pet. Do your best, but after that, you have a duty to your family to keep yourself alive.

Best option is the family or friend who lives well inland who will accept you and your pets but the option is not always available. Sometimes family lives at a distance where you would have to fly -- again forcing you to chose only one pet to go with you -- or sometimes you don't have reliable transportation and most shelters serving inner city people without cars don't allow pets.

Do your best, always have sufficient food, water, and carriers at the ready, but do not blame yourself either if a hard decision must be made.

Most people who leave pets behind in a mandatory evacuation are doing it at order of the authorities and with great personal grief.

I have never lost a pet to natural disaster, knock on wood, but after my house was crushed by a tropical storm, I did with great sadness sell some of my pets to an owner with a large, full-size van. I no longer have more pets than I could transport in event of emergency.

But many of my friends are in rescue, and the pet they do not adopt is the pet that will be put to sleep, so even if they adopt more than they could ever evacuate, they have given those animals some reprieve and a chance at longer life.

You do the best you can.

My two cents.