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Tell Congress: Don't Abandon Pets In Disasters!

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Nope. I love my pets, but people come first. We don't have enough resources to take proper care of people in disasters, so any resources devoted to pets in emergencies are completely misplaced.

This would require a complete set of duplicate transportation, given that lots of people have severe allergies and wouldn't be able to share a bus with dogs or cats or ferrets or hippos. Who decides whether someone's grandma or someone else's gibbon gets on the bus.

How do you handle animal behaviors in a crowded shelter? Not every pitbull is sweet, not every llama is litter-trained, not every macaw is silent. Some animals don't get along particularly well with each other or with people. There would be mountains of poo. Thus, you'd need duplicate shelters as well. That, or we could kick out some people to make way for other people's private zoos.

People can pretty much survive on the same food. Animals require a huge range of different sources of nutrition. Are you proposing we stockpile diets for sugar gliders, hedgehogs, iguanas, vampire bats, and newborn kittens? Since many of these diets are quite perishable they would have to be replaces often and would require refrigeration (or ice) that could otherwise be used for someone's insulin and someone else's baby formula. That might not be important, though, if all the money that could otherwise have gone to stockpile food and medicines for people went for pet chow.

I understand that you like animals, but I'm only willing to support this once we're able to transport, feed, house, and medically treat every person that needs it. This has never yet been possible in the history of the world. How about a petition to tell Congress "Don't Abandon People in Disasters?"
 
mstevens:
How about a petition to tell Congress "Don't Abandon People in Disasters?"

You beat me to the punch with *exactly* what I was going to write with that line above (and you are the first responder)! My meaning was not a commentary on the consideration given to animals, however, but about the profound negligence displayed in the disaster response.

[Of course in an ideal world animals of both the human *and* non-human variety would not be abandoned.]
 
i think we need to emphasize better care for humans and animals as well

one does not exclude or preclude the other
 
kabots:


Wrong political house, wrong message.

Tell PET OWNERS NOT to abondon Pets, or better yet evacuate WHEN they are told.

While RITA evacuation is a perfect example of people attempting to do the right thing with less then perfect results, after Katrina, at LEAST people are taking it seriously for the most part.

However, there were not shortage of folks that were going to stay put.

I'm all in favor of the Darwin method. :11: But pets owned by Darwin canidates will make news.
 
RonFrank:
Tell PET OWNERS NOT to abondon Pets, or better yet evacuate WHEN they are told.

pet owners were not allowed to bring their pets onto rescue buses in New
Orleans. in some cases, the owners refused, but most of them had no choice
by that point and had to leave the pets behind. they don't have the power to
change the rules. Congress does. hence the petition.

why the no-pet rule? it's a frigging bus ride. let the pets come along.


those most likely not to be able to evacuate when they are told are those
most likely not to be able to make arrangements for their pets

a simple "let the pets get on the buses" would go a long way here

this is the pertinent part in the petition:

This new bill would require that the state and local disaster preparedness plans required for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding include provisions that will protect household pets and service animals.


i.e. if a pet owner shows up, transport him/her and the pet as well to a shelter
 
H2Andy:
why the no-pet rule? it's a frigging bus ride. let the pets come along.
Because there is always some guy with a mean doberman/pitbull/rotweiller that will attack some ladies cat or lapdog. So you have to require pets in carriers. Then that takes up space that should go to people first. And it doesn't begin to account for the people who won't have their own carriers, now you need to have thousands of those on hand. And on and on and on.

I love animals in general and pets in particular, but I think this petition shows how soft we as a society have become, putting people's pets above human wellbeing...
 
yes, that's true... it does complicate things, and the last thing you want to
add in a rescue situation is friction

but i don't think this means we are putting pets above human well-being

for example, lady shows up with poodle. why not let the poodle in?

lady shows up with rabid doberman: no thanks...

see? we're thinking beings. we can figure these things out. the problem now
is that there's a ban prohibition, which may not be the best way to go

or make it known upfront that all pets MUST be in CRATES. now the onus is
on the owners to do just that. if they don't bring a crate, what can you do?
then say, ok, pets go out ONLY when there's room, which means you're gonna
wait. wanna do that, pet owner? yes sir, i love my poodle... see? we can
work these sort of things out. we are AMERICA, for christ sakes, we can
do anything

i'm just saying, it's a workable problem. it's not an either-or thing
 
H2Andy:
This new bill would require that the state and local disaster preparedness plans required for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding include provisions that will protect household pets and service animals.
This is a joke, right? I mean, no one is really going to try to tax me for their cat, are they? I didn't ask them to get a cat, which is a luxury item. Please don't forcibly steal from my income for your cat.

What a world...
 
the buses are going to be there anyway, rick, to get the people out

the pets are just hitching a ride

as for the care of pets, i would rather see them fed than starved to death
or drowned; certainly private donations can cover this, ala Red Cross


dead pets = carrion = disease = pollution = more costs to clean up

i am also thinking of those workers going in there with all the dead pets
contaminating the water. do they not deserve better?

so would you rather pay taxes to keep things clean or to have to clean up
the mess afterwards? i guarantee you, if you've ever had a refrigirator full
of food spoil on you, you know prevention is a LOT cheaper and much
more pleasant
 
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