Pet Evacuation Legislation Introduced

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal disaster grants to state and local governments should be conditioned on how they accommodate pets in their evacuation plans, say lawmakers disturbed that some Hurricane Katrina victims refused to leave home because they couldn't take their animals with them.

"I cannot help but wonder how many more people could have been saved had they been able to take their pets," Rep. Tom Lantos, D-California, said Thursday.

Lantos and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, and Barney Frank, D-Massaschusetts, are sponsoring a bill that would require that state and local disaster preparedness plans required for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding include provisions for household pets and service animals.

More than 6,000 pets have been saved in Mississippi and Louisiana, said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, but tens of thousands more could still be in New Orleans alone. Texas, he said, has been better at allowing people to take their pets with them ahead of Hurricane Rita but a formal policy is still needed.

"We cannot rely on individual acts of compassion," Markarian said.

Holly Hazard, executive director of the Doris Day Animal League, said there are 4,000 outstanding requests to rescue pets more than three weeks after Katrina hit.

While the legislation may draw attention to the issue, it doesn't "have any real meat in it," said Sara Spaulding, a spokeswoman for the American Humane Association. She said uniform protocols on rescuing and sheltering animals, for example, should be formulated at the federal level with consultation from animal welfare groups.

my mother actually drove down from Tn to N.O. to help with the animals/saving ,whatever...


i really didn't want her too,but i'm a good 4 hours away,i couldn't stop her.

she said it was complete chaos down there(this was only a week or so ago),that the people that should be running things are just kinda doing the chicken without a head thing.


i'd rather stay with an animal i cared about than be scooped up by the gov.I don't blame those people at all.

I would be tempted to do the same as the pet owners in NOLA. The response was simply pathetic and inhumane. I don't like giving money for a 20% success rate (although the SPCA and Noah's WIsh did everything they could)

OEC

SPCA did work their sweet asses off...

i just read today over half of teh animals in N.O. were "pitbulls" or any of the breed people mistake for them.

so many of the large "rescue" operations would go find ofther "cuter" and more easily adopted dogs.

their is two specifically pitbull rescue groups their,helping all dogs,but are their for the "pits".

that's sad...(did i mention i'm getting a Canis Panther)

(***inchorent typing warning***sorry)