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2005 brought a horrible disaster for people and pets of Louisiana, thousands of lives were lost or turned up-side-down. What happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.

In August 2005 a deadly hurricane hit in south eastern United States and although there was plenty of warning, over 1800 people, and countless thousands of animals, lost their lives. The hurricane hit New Orleans, Louisiana, and broke many of the protective levees and water flooded the city. Most of the city, and surrounding area, was underwater, in some cases for weeks.

People were given warnings to leave, and were even offered free transportation out of the area. Many people did not listen to these warnings, and some of those people paid with their lives. Sadly, a rule at the time made the decision to leave impossible for some people. They were told they could not take their pets with them, as such some people opted to stay with their pet, rather than leave it behind. Other people left their pets behind.

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The photo that prompted this article.  Photo source http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/1Pony1Dog1CadillacDOA.jpg From Wikimedia Commons

Nobody will know how many animal lives were lost. Undoubtedly thousands of wild animals perished as did many animals kept as livestock. Pets lost their lives too, aquarium fish, hamsters, cats, dogs, and even ponies. It was a tragedy nobody excepted. Most people who fled were only expecting to be gone a few days. I doubt if anyone knew their pets were going to die.

What when wrong was that people had pets but had no where to go with them, or were not allowed to bring them on the evacuation buses. What went wrong was that nobody believed it could happen to them. What went wrong was that many people had pets but laws did not require rescuers to evacuate the pets in addition to their owners.

Photo source
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/BywaterDeadDogSorry.jpg  From Wikimedia Commons.

After the hurricane many volunteers, and not just those from the USA, came to the area to help the people, and to help the pets. Animal rescue groups, such as the SPCA and Humane Societies came and searched homes for left behind animals, they marked checked houses to show if they found living or dead pets. They caught and trapped hundreds of animals now roaming the streets. Workers were able to reunite some pets with their owners, but it was less than 20 %. Pets who were microchipped or tattooed had a better chance of being reunited with their owner. Sometimes the original pet owners were not able to find accommodations that allowed them to have pets. In some cases the original owners could not be found. Over ten thousand pets found their ways to shelters across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

In the aftermath, it was learned that at least 40% of the human victims who chose to stay behind, chose to do so because of not wanting to leave their pets.

In the year that followed, new laws were put in place in many states, to provide evacuation for household pets. Pet friendly emergency shelters have been constructed since this disaster, and many people started looking into making their own emergency plans.

Do you have a crate or kennel to carry your pet in? Even a cardboard box will work in an emergency. Do you have a friend or family member you could stay with? Is your cat or dog microchipped or tattooed? When you think of all the emergency supplies you can put in your vehicle, are you remembering pet food and pets? Do you have a photograph of your pet for identifications purposes?

Let us hope we never have to make the choice of leaving a pet behind, and let us act now to prepare for those situations we never hope to encounter.