Natural disasters and emergencies create acute welfare crises for farm animals, and advance planning dramatically reduces suffering and mortality.
Farm animals are highly vulnerable during emergencies because they cannot self-evacuate and are often categorized as property rather than sentient beings in disaster planning. The suffering during major agricultural disasters is immense — animals dying from heat, flooding, fire, or prolonged deprivation while awaiting help. Advance farm emergency planning, including established relationships with transporters and neighbors, identification of animals, and water and feed caching, reduces this suffering substantially.