We’ve seen the sad fate of many family pets in recent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake. During disasters, many pets become lost, scared and separated from their families. Animal shelters, when available at all, quickly become overfilled and locating and/or identifying a pet can become a huge concern. The recent devastation from the Japan earthquake and tsunami served as yet another reminder to consider our own pet emergency preparedness.
Skip panicked scramble in emergency; BE PREPARED
When planning for an emergency our imaginations can get carried away. Sometimes that's a good thing. If Hurricane Katrina taught us one thing it’s that we can never really imagine the horrific realities wrought by natural disasters of such magnitude.
Learning from mistakes made during events like Katrina is important, especially in the Northwest, where an earthquake or tsunami could actually occur. All the more important considering how easy it is to dismiss the possibility of such events, given their rarity. It’s likely that if or when such an event did occur here, our guard would be down.