The Flood and Pets

By Bill McDonald, CEO

Having just gone through another flood season here in Manitoba, the issue of flooding and pets became a topic of discussion at the Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) meetings. Since the flood of 2009,The Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS) has been a member of the EMO Animal Evacuation Coordination Committee. Our main responsibility has been to help with the Winnipeg Evacuation Centre that is set up to receive flood evacuees and their pets. Our province has been a leader in getting the message out to flood victims to take their pets with them in an evacuation.

This has not always been the case. The classic example of not doing this was Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. During Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), attempted to stop people from leaving with their pets and the official message was to leave your pets behind! The post Katrina analysis of what FEMA did right during Katrina and what they did wrong included examining the policy of leaving pets behind. It became quite clear after Katrina had passed that a large number of the rooftop rescues undertaken by the US Coast Guard were necessary because people stayed behind with their pets. Many of the videos taken during the rescue attempts show a person standing on a roof of a house surrounded by flood waters with a dog sitting beside him.

In 2009, I attended The Humane Society of The United States annual conference called “Animal Expo.” I attended a presentation by one of the FEMA officials who was involved with Katrina. He explained that FEMA undertook a complete reversal of their previous policy decision leaving pets behind. FEMA undertook the new position of “take your pets with you, we will assist in housing and caring for them.” This positive approach became the obvious right decision when Hurricane Ike hit the Texas gulf coast in September of 2008. While a number of rooftop rescues still occurred, the number involving pets dropped dramatically. It was also observed during Hurricane Ike that the people with pets who had to evacuate and be housed in temporary facilities were less stressed than people without animals. The simple explanation is that the people with pets had something to do in taking care of their pets and less time on their hands to worry about what was happening back home.

Here in Manitoba, the unique partnership between government agencies and non-profit groups, like The WHS, have been working together since 2009 to develop our position of ‘evacuate with your pets’. In fact, this year a brochure was designed and distributed informing Manitobans of what to do in the event of an evacuation due to flooding.

Having two dogs of my own, Cassidy Jean and Major Dundee, and living right on the Red River I simply can’t imagine being forced to evacuate and driving away from my home and leaving them behind. The bond is too strong, and I believe the vast majority of pet owners feel the same as I do. Recently the President and CEO of The United States Humane Society, Wayne Pacelle, wrote a book called The Bond: Our With Animals, Our Call To Defend Them. Wayne writes of the special bond we have with animals that goes back in time to when we were a hunting/gathering society. At times, The Bond is a sad commentary on the abuse and cruelty of companion animals, farm animals and wild animals, but Pacelle also presents hope for the future and reminds us that “the greatest challenge of the animal welfare movement is to remind people of things they already know to be true – that to mistreat any animal is beneath us.”

In Manitoba we are fortunate to have organizations that are concerned about the animals during our flood periods. Leaving defenceless pets behind during a flood is beneath us and I am thankful that we are being true to our animals.