Natural disasters including wildfires, floods, and hurricanes cause mass mortality and suffering in both wild and domestic animals, with emergency response protocols for animals improving but still inadequate.
Animals caught in natural disasters experience acute trauma, physical injury, dehydration, and death from the disaster itself, followed by longer-term welfare harm from habitat destruction, displacement, and population fragmentation. Domestic animals left behind in disaster evacuations face prolonged suffering from dehydration, starvation, and injury without human care. Post-disaster wildlife rescue focuses on individual injured animals while the larger challenge is habitat restoration that allows surviving populations to recover. Climate change is increasing disaster frequency and severity, making animal disaster welfare an increasingly important field.