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ANIMAL SHELTERS
If there's a flood, tornado, riots, or other disaster, will your local shelter be able to take your animals? Have you checked? How will you evacuate? What to take? |
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FLOODS, SHELTERS, AND PET EVACUATIONSTheDogPlace.org Staff, June 2015
Pets drowning from Texas to OK as rampaging flood waters send people and pets to shelters only to find that some shelters accept people but refuse their pets!
Lives have been lost, property demolished, and countless pets have been displaced throughout the destruction that took place this week from devastating floods that ravaged Oklahoma southward into southern Texas. When this Austin animal shelter put out a desperate plea on Monday May 25th, via facebook, saying it was “WAY over capacity,” Texans rallied to help. Austin Pets Alive! was able to keep pets above water but TheDogPress.com reports “they had nowhere to put their current animals, let alone the numerous pets that were being brought there as a result of the storms.”
Texans are known for bravery and resourceful resolve.
There is currently very little high ground although as in the Katrina Hurricane flooding, some dogs and cats have taken to the rooftops.
Cattle ranchers are trying desperately to save young calves, too small to wade, they have to swim for their lives!
Horses are faring a little better but livestock owners are working round the clock to save them from the flood waters. They are also dreading the muddy aftermath which will claim more livestock trapped in mud holes.
One couple, unable to carry their big dog, figured out a way to float him to safety. Others have been equally inventive but sadly, many animals were left to fend for themselves.
This year is promising to break all records. Floods are killers as are golf-ball sized hail and tornadoes. As this article was being assembled, killer tornadoes, straight-line winds (a calming acronym for mini-tornadoes) were already hitting the Oklahoma City area, parts of Kansas and Arkansas with more floods as record breaking rainfall forced placid rivers to become raging torrents.
2015 has brought extraordinary weather phenomenon and predictions are that summer of 2016 will also experience flooding unlike anything on record.
Also threatening the stability and resources of America is the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program - a flood of Muslim-faith refugees into SC, NC, and other states. Wyoming is refusing to allow them, other states rebelling but this could spell financial disaster comparable to natural weather phenomena as city and state budgets are stretched too thin. America is a "country of immigrants" but that was a long time ago when this was an immense land of opportunity and growth. We are the most generous nation on earth but there are only so many shelters available and border states are overwhelmed by illegal immigrants.
The point is that budgets and facilities are strained. The help you once took for granted may not be available by 2016 if there are major floods, tornadoes, or other disasters in your area. Wise pet owners will have a plan and be prepared for livestock or pet evacuation.
Don't wait until something happens. You are at the computer, find your local “animal shelter contact information”, note where high ground is and how to get there, especially if you have livestock.
See below for disaster preparedness information. And one more thing. See how you can help your local animal and human shelter system so they can help you and other animal owners if 2016 is another year of weather disasters. Copyright © 1998 TheDogPlace.org 2001-2021 1506s11165r2 https://www.thedogplace.org/Animal-Shelters/floods-shelters-pet-evacuation-150601ba.asp SSI Brought to you by the NetPlaces Network
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