Natural disasters and emergencies create acute welfare crises for both wild and domestic animals, requiring pre-planned response protocols and public education to minimise suffering.
Disaster response for animals requires the same level of advance planning as human emergency response, yet animal contingency planning is rarely afforded equivalent resources. The welfare consequences of inadequate planning are severe: animals abandoned during evacuation face dehydration, starvation, injury, and death. Farm animals trapped in flooded or burning buildings face acute suffering without prompt rescue. The emotional bond between people and their animals means that failure to provide animal rescue capacity during human emergencies also undermines human evacuation compliance, creating a human safety argument for animal emergency planning alongside the animal welfare case.