Within a few hours of arriving in Miami after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, I
realized that the disaster affecting animals was due not only to the impact
of the storm as much as the consequences of the chaos that
followed. Nobody knew for sure how many horses were involved, what their
injuries were, who was procuring food and water, disposing of manure, handling
donations, or whether there were financial or legal implications associated
with anything we were doing. However, within a few days I had organized our
group similar to the way we worked in the Large Animal Teaching Hospital, and
by doing so, we found ourselves embarked on one of the first managed responses
to a disaster involving animals.
Several years later when I was first approached by Mosby-Year Books to
write this book, my first response was that it was too early, there were still
too many unknowns, too many competing groups, and it was still not clear who
would play what roles. As this book goes to print, there are still many
questions that have no complete answers. Nevertheless through my continued
work from the local community to the international arena, I am now convinced
that there are enough shared experiences between emergency management and the
animal care community for both audiences to be ready for a first text book on
animal management in disasters.
Most sociologic research on disasters indicates that disasters do not
create new conditions, they simply exacerbate existing ones. Recognizing
the vulnerability to existing weaknesses is the basis for the concept that
disasters are cyclical events with four phases: mitigation, preparedness,
response, and recovery. Every community is in at least one of these phases
at any one time. The most effective disaster reduction programs apply to the
mitigation and preparedness phases, because it is here that the vulnerability
to the consequences of disasters are reduced.
The care of animals and their owners in disasters still lags behind other
disciplines. Many popularized reports on animals in disasters are based on
underlying societal problems in which sensationalism is preferred over
constructive alternatives that could improve overall animal well being.
Examples include household evacuation failure because of pets (misplaced
anthropomorphism), pet evacuation failure followed by pet rescues (often the
result of animal neglect), and adoption programs for abandoned pets and horses
(mostly for stray, neglected and abused animals). The constructive approach is
to describe what owners should do to avoid getting into this situation in the
first place.
A common reaction to these reports has been disaster response programs that
have based their mission on these inappropriate assumptions. Many of the
groups that have limited themselves to response activities potentially condone
the conditions that have led to the needs of disaster victims if their efforts
are not balanced by mitigation and preparedness programs.
This book is a first attempt to summarize the scope of the management of
animals in disasters. I have tried to write this book in a style that allows
individuals and groups to recognize what specific actions they can take to
improve the care and welfare of animals and their owners before, during and
after times of disaster, and to understand why.
In the "Introduction" I have tried to offer a foundation to the
management of animals in disasters by reviewing of some of the history of
veterinary disaster management. I have also tried to dispel some common myths,
and elucidate on the common though inappropriate assumptions about what really
happens in disasters. It is here where I have proposed a first definition of
this new and emerging field aspect of public and animal health.
The "Hazards" section is intended to raise awareness of the risks
to personal safety from common conditions that lead to all scales of
disasters. Approximately 3 million US citizens are affected by small scale
disasters every year, at a cost to this country of over $1 billion a week. The
principle goal of the animal care professions in the management of animals in
disasters is to reduce the occurrence and impact of the common, local and
personal disasters. The underlying principle is that: preparedness for
disasters that occur every day is the best preparedness for extra ordinary
disasters. In this context it is important to realize that individual
animal owners have the greatest potential to avert harm to their animals in
all scales of disasters.
People who are unprepared and unable to take care of their own needs when
disaster strikes will not be able to help others. Personal preparedness is,
therefore, a responsibility that each of us has as care providers for animals.
Similar principles apply to preparedness at work.
In the "Disaster Preparedness for Businesses" section this and
another principle of disaster preparedness are emphasized: all disasters
start at the local level. To be able to provide animal care during a
disaster, businesses must have business continuity plans. Business continuity
plans include personal disaster preparedness and work place safety plans from
common hazards in the work place, determine how to store and retrieve records,
and ensure adequate insurance and financial security. If businesses cannot
remain functional in common and local disasters, they will also not be
functional in large scale disasters. Preparedness for common disasters that
arise in animal care related businesses is the basis for functioning as
critical animal care facilities in major disasters.
The pinnacle of disaster preparedness is a disaster resistant community. In
most communities emergency management provides an authoritative and systematic
approach to coordinate all phases of a disaster. Professional emergency
managers have long recognized that the impacts and consequences of many
disasters can be predicted, and that many of the issues that arise are the
result of poor community preparedness for everyday problems. This introduces a
third principle of emergency management, which is that the response to
disasters is most effective if it is carried out by those persons and groups
that deal with the same issues that arise in the course of their regular work.
This principle is the basis for why local veterinary practices and animal
shelters are the best resources to deal with animals and their owners in
disasters in their local community. Both are familiar with local standards of
care for animals and their owners, both deal with management of stress in
animal owners, and have experience in dealing with staff and volunteers. Both
also have a permanent vested interest in their community.
The formal methods of planning and a proposed standard terminology are the
subject of the "The Structure of Emergency Management" section. This
section also includes information on the authority under which the animal care
and emergency management professions operate, their expertise, and typical
resources. Throughout this section I have emphasized another important
principal of emergency management, which is that disasters should be
managed in a consistent and modular fashion. This is best accomplished
using existing expertise and resources, rather than stockpiling resources for
extra ordinary events. To facilitate the inclusion of the management of
animals in disasters by other emergency management groups I have also proposed
a first systematic nomenclature for the Veterinary Incident Management System.
Examples of typical issues that arise for different types of animals in
disasters are the subject of the "Management of Animals" section.
This section is ordered by species, because even though different disasters
can impact a community in many ways, most disasters create similar
consequences. These consequences are often characteristic of individual
types of animals because of typical deficiencies in their every day care. In
these chapters I have tried to emphasize mitigation and preparedness measures
that individual owners can implement and that will be effective for many types
of disasters.
I chose to take a slightly different approach to how disasters are likely
to affect the livestock industry. This is because although the livestock
industry has already have mandated plans to protect public and animal health
specifically from nuclear power plant accidents and trans boundary (foreign
animal) disease outbreaks. Nevertheless, few of the plans appear to take into
account likely human behaviors and public expectations. For example, producers
(more so than pet owners) are unlikely to evacuate without their animals or if
forced to evacuate will reenter a secured area to provide their animals with
feed and water; and the public is likely to question the safety of food that
was exposed to nuclear fall out.
Food safety is included in the discussion of disasters affecting the
livestock industry because many food borne disease outbreaks could be handled
in a similar way to other "all-hazards" emergency management
programs. Although we do not have many solutions to these types of problems
facing the livestock industry today, there is growing interest in identifying
the likely consequences of disasters on the livestock industry and how to
mitigate these by improving animal health in general.
The "Disaster Relief" section covers experiences on how to manage
disaster relief and some of the common stumbling blocks that veterinary
disaster management has faced, such as who pays for the care of animals and
their owners, how responders are covered for liability, and how donations are
dealt with effectively and ethically.
There are several chapters that may appear to be missing. For example, I
have refrained from dissertations on "model" programs that promote
extra ordinary responses such as field triage, white water or helicopter
rescues, and mass veterinary medical care. These may be effective media
events, but have rarely saved many lives or prevented injury in disaster
struck populations. There are simply greater priorities to address at this
point in time that can improve public and animal population health on a broad
and every day basis.
I have also not prescribed detailed operational procedures, because the
best procedures are those that are developed by the persons who will be using
them.
I also deliberately omitted a chapter on bio terrorism. I simply did not
want to offer a recipe for this type of disaster. The introduction of a trans
boundary disease into US agriculture is both technologically and financially
feasible as an intentional act of terrorism, or as a result of the naïve
actions of an international traveler. The losses this county would suffer from
such an introduction could be catastrophic to the livestock industry and would
likely dwarf in damages and cost of any such direct attack on humans.
The future of veterinary disaster management looks promising. Increasingly
animal health care professionals with emergency managers are recognizing how
they can incorporate their expertise into existing emergency management
functions. By following this approach, the opportunities to improve public
health and animal well being abound.
One of the greatest challenges for those of who live and work with animals
is to recognize that we are the best and most responsible resource to
care for our animals in times of disaster. Disaster preparedness is a
meaningful social value; it contributes to a stronger human-animal bond and
community strength and growth.
The attention that disasters attract make them one of the most effective
teaching opportunities to improve animal husbandry and business management
practices among animal owners and allied industries. By applying the
principles of disaster mitigation and preparedness in every day life we have
the potential to improve the care of animals at all times, not only in times
of crisis.
