Animal Welfare in Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response

Disasters including floods, wildfires, and hurricanes cause enormous suffering for domestic and wild animals, yet animal welfare is often poorly integrated into emergency planning and response frameworks.

Key Facts

Hurricane Katrina resulted in approximately 250,000 pets abandoned due to evacuation policies excluding animals
The 2019-20 Australian wildfires killed or displaced an estimated three billion animals
Research shows many people refuse to evacuate without their pets creating human safety risks when animals are excluded
Large animal evacuation is particularly challenging and often inadequately planned at local government level
Animal welfare organizations increasingly coordinate with emergency services to provide evacuation and sheltering

Welfare Considerations

Animals experience acute suffering during disasters through burns, drowning, smoke inhalation, injury, and starvation. The scale of wildlife mortality in events like the Australian wildfires demonstrates that billions of animals can experience severe suffering in single disaster events. Domestic animals left behind during evacuations experience abandonment trauma, starvation, and often death. Planning for animal welfare in disasters requires integration of pet-friendly evacuation routes, large animal evacuation resources, and wildlife rescue coordination into mainstream emergency management.

What You Can Do

Include your pets in your household emergency and evacuation plan
Register with local animal emergency management networks if you have livestock or large animals
Donate to animal disaster relief organizations that provide emergency response and sheltering
Advocate for pet-inclusive emergency sheltering in your local government emergency planning
Support wildlife rescue organizations that operate during and after major disaster events