Saving Kitty or Max during a major disaster or emergency may seem a bit extravagant when so many people need help.
But federal law now requires cities and towns to have evacuation plans for animals during disasters…..or risk losing FEMA assistance.
The mandate is a direct result of what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. Thousands of people were separated from their pets or forced to abandon them.
Following the federal regulations, New Hampshire is setting up its own animal rescue teams to help during emergencies. NHPR’s Amy Quinton attended a recent training and files this report.
Nats/Chatter (as animals are coming in the main things you’re going to look for are respiratory problems in cats…(under)
At the Bedford Animal Rescue League, a room is filled with people and their pets.
((woman1) 1165 :29 this is a case of a client here who rescued a cat from the waters, and she was pretty upset because she’s lost a cat before.)
The client, in this case, is a woman clutching a stuffed animal.
((catwoman)1163 1:29 this little guy, I found him in the river and I don’t know how bad he is, but he seems to be okay I don’t know for sure. Can I take a look at him? I just want to hold him.)
The woman isn’t crazy – she knows she’s holding a stuffed animal… she’s participating in a training drill for New Hampshire’s Disaster Animal Response Team, or DART.
New Hampshire DART Team Leader Mark Dupree says the chaotic scene is designed to simulate an emergency animal shelter following a flood or other disaster.
(1158 :20 They’re going through the intake process and the release process in a mock shelter, we have stuffed animals and we’re going to be using some live animals as we go through the exercise, other volunteers will be setting up cages, cleaning cages, and others will be doing the paperwork involved in the intake process.)
A woman calling herself Matilda holds a real 12 week old rabbit, wrapped in a towel.
(1164 :57 I’ve got this bunny, I want to stay here with the bunny but I also want to volunteer because I’ve got lots of experience, I used to volunteer at an animal shelter and I also worked at a pet store, and I’ve worked at a zoo before, I love animals..)
Those training for DART also have to learn how to deal with spontaneous volunteers during disasters… they have to be prepared for almost any scenario.
The woman role-playing Matilda is actually Joanne Bourbeau, New England’s Regional Director for the Humane Society of the U-S.
She told the group of trainees they need to be aware that 60-percent of pet owners will not evacuate during a disaster unless something is done for their animals.
(1139 :11 the old mindset was that in times of emergency people will care about themselves and they won’t worry about their animals when exactly the opposite is true, people care more about their animals, consider them part of their family and we saw that in three mile island that people would ignore an nuclear evacuation order in order to stay with their animals and make sure they’re safe )
But it took television images of children being separated from their pets and animals stranded by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina to initiate change on the federal level.
The PETS Act of 2006 now requires all localities, towns and states to plan for animal evacuation.
In New Hampshire, the state veterinarian has been in charge of animal disaster response.
But Doctor Steve Crawford says with limited funding and staff, responding to emergencies wasn’t very effective.
1124 1:37 it was a ton of phone calls, I had to call the person to do the rescue from the home, I had to call the person to do transport of the animal to wherever the shelter might be, I had to talk to people about setting up the shelter, I had to talk to people about manning the shelter and on and on, now I’ve got NH DART as essentially a single phone call, a one-stop shop.
New Hampshire set up DART as a nonprofit private entity – allowing teams to fundraise, rely on volunteers, and respond to local emergencies rather than having to wait for a state of emergency.
NH-Dart Executive Director Lora dePlante says there are currently five trained teams across the state, but more are being set up.
She says now people told to evacuate in emergencies will be able to bring their pets with them.
1135 8:09 we hope people will feel somewhat confident to bring their animals with them, people go to people shelter and we’ll take care of their animals, they can visit with them, they can walk their dogs, but you’ll have trained people taking care of them, while you worry about where you’re going to sleep tomorrow.
(nat sound)1160 zip ties and duct tape should be on our list
Back in the training room, NH Dart volunteer and North Conway resident Brian Ahearn is setting up a crate for a dog.
1160 as the animal is coming in the door we realized we didn’t have a crate set up large enough for him, so we’re improvising, we don’t have any screws to put it together so we’re using zip ties.
Ahearn is getting the training he needs to be a DART team member – he volunteered in Mississippi after Katrina hit, and was moved by what he saw.
1143 2:07 I learned a lot going down there about how unprepared people really are, we were there in November, months after the hurricane and there were 800 animals in a shelter, and that was just one shelter, there were hundreds of shelters down there.
Ahearn wears a Patriots hat as he works..Training for DART on this day required him to miss seeing the Patriots play in the AFC championship game.
While he’s a big Patriots fan – he says he’s a bigger fan of animals.
He hopes he can start his own DART team in the Conway area and be able to help if a disaster ever happened there.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
