When most people think about emergency preparedness, they picture hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, or severe winter storms. Understanding the natural disasters most likely to affect your area is important, but those aren’t the only situations that can force you and your animals from your home.
A gas leak, neighboring house fire, downed power line, water main break, or other unexpected emergency could require you to leave with little or no warning. An emergency may also affect you personally. A sudden illness, injury, or fall that requires you to be transported to the hospital could mean an emergency pet sitter, family member, or friend needs to step in and care for or evacuate your animals on your behalf. That’s why emergency preparedness for your animals needs to account for the situations you can anticipate and the ones you can’t.
If someone told you that you had to leave your home with your animals right now, would you know what to do?
Know the Emergency Risks Where You Live
Start by learning which natural disasters are most common in your area and how local authorities communicate during emergencies. Find your state and county emergency management resources through Ready.gov, sign up for local alerts when available, and know where to find reliable information before you need it.
Then think beyond natural disasters. Recently, a contractor installing fiber optic cable accidentally hit a gas line, forcing me to evacuate my house. People in the area were suddenly told to evacuate in the middle of a normal weekday. There was no advance warning, and we didn’t know how long we would be unable to return. The evacuation ultimately lasted about three hours.
It was a reminder that you may not have days to prepare. Sometimes you simply have to leave.
Know Where You Can Evacuate With Your Pets
One of the most important parts of a pet emergency plan is deciding where you’ll go. Identify pet-friendly hotels, friends or relatives, boarding facilities, and emergency shelters that can accommodate your animals.
Consider different scenarios. Where could you go for a few hours? What if you couldn’t return home overnight or for several days? Does your planned location accept every type of animal you have?
Identify a primary destination and at least one backup, preferably including an option outside your immediate area. If you’re relying on friends or family, discuss the plan with them ahead of time.
Create an Emergency Plan for Horses, Especially
Emergency preparedness for horses requires additional planning because you need appropriate shelter and transportation. Determine where your horse could go during an evacuation. Depending on your community, that might be a friend’s farm, boarding facility, fairgrounds, or designated large-animal shelter. Then determine how you’ll get your horse there.
If you don’t own a trailer, identify who could transport your horse and discuss the arrangement beforehand. Don’t assume someone will be available during a widespread emergency. Your horse should also be comfortable loading and unloading. Practice before an emergency so you aren’t discovering a transportation problem when you need to leave quickly.
Prepare a Pet Emergency Kit
Keep emergency supplies together and somewhere you can access them quickly. Your kit should include essentials such as food, water, medications, feeding supplies, leashes and harnesses, carriers, sanitation supplies, veterinary information, and basic first-aid supplies.
The ASPCA recommends keeping seven to 10 days of food and water for each pet and a two-week supply of necessary medications. Check your emergency kit regularly and rotate anything that can expire.
Consider including familiar items such as bedding, a blanket, or a favorite toy. If your animal has to stay somewhere unfamiliar, bringing something that smells and feels like home may provide additional comfort.
Make Sure Your Animals Can Be Identified
Check that your animals’ identification is current. Dogs and cats should have appropriate identification, and the contact information associated with their microchips should be up to date. Keep current photos and copies of veterinary records accessible.
GPS or Bluetooth trackers can provide an additional tool in some circumstances, but they shouldn’t replace permanent identification such as a registered microchip. Horse owners should also keep current photos, veterinary information, ownership documentation, and other identifying information available in case an animal becomes separated during an evacuation.
Plan for When You’re Not Home
Your emergency plan needs to work even when you’re away. If you have a pet sitter or trusted emergency contact, make sure they know where your animals’ food, medications, carriers, leashes, and emergency supplies are located. They should know where to take your animals and what to do if they can’t reach you.
If your animal attends daycare, stays at a boarding kennel, or is kept at a stable, ask about the facility’s emergency preparedness plan. Where will the animals go if the facility has to evacuate? How will they be transported? How will owners be contacted?
These are questions worth asking before you leave your animal in someone else’s care.
Practice Your Pet Evacuation Plan
A plan on paper may look great until you try to use it. Practice gathering your animals and supplies, using carriers, loading your horse into the trailer, and getting everyone into your vehicle.
You may discover that your cat’s carrier is difficult to access, you don’t have enough carriers to safely transport each of your pets, your horse won’t load easily, your friend can’t accommodate all your animals, or your backup caregiver doesn’t have a key. Finding those problems now gives you time to solve them.
Emergency preparedness for pets begins before an emergency happens. Know where you’ll go, how you’ll get there, what you’ll take, and who can help. Don’t prepare only for the disaster you can see coming. Prepare for the ordinary day when someone tells you, “You need to leave now.”
