In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd displaced tens of thousands of animals throughout North Carolina and the southeastern United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent experts into the field to assess damage to livestock herds, but learned that many of the animals affected were domestic pets.
“When I traveled to North Carolina with our emergency response teams, I was horrified to see the number of pets that had been harmed by the hurricane,” said Michael V. Dunn, under secretary for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs. “In the flight of evacuation, pets were lost, left behind, and separated from their owners. Some shelters weren’t equipped to handle animals and fleeing pet owners didn’t know what to do with their dogs and cats.”
“I realized that the USDA needed to develop a strategy not only to work with livestock and agricultural animals, but with companion animals as well.”
Officials from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, along with under secretary Dunn, met with disaster planners from the Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Association in November to discuss how best to secure the well-being of pets in disasters.
The meeting allowed USDA officials to examine the disaster strategies of various animal protection groups and discuss how the department can work with companion animals and their owners before, during, and after times of crisis.
“We are in the early stages of planning,” Dunn added. “But we see a time when the USDA will help people and their pets reach a place of safety during an emergency.”
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The Animal Welfare Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
Phone: (301) 504-6212
FAX: (301) 504-7125
E-mail: awic@nal.usda.gov
