Bill Would Require Safety Plans for Pets

[Kadie]

Bill Would Require Safety Plans for Pets

By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
38 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - 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 (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said Thursday.

Lantos and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Barney Frank, D-Mass., 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...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050922/ap_on_go_co/katrina_pets_hk4_1

[Mutley]

1. Wonderful!

Now more people, and pets, can survive a disaster.

[demnan]

2. Yes!

Too bad it took such a tragedy for people to begin thinking about the pets.

[lse7581011]

3. Awesome News!

I would have been one of those not to evacuate if I couldn't take my pets!

[Maraya1969]

4. I wouldn't evacuate without my pets. They are part of my family.

[Catrina]

5. I can't believe they didn't have such a plan

and was outraged at how people were being forced to leave animals in such inhumane conditions.

There are so many reasons to have such a plan. First, because pets are to many people, the only thing they love, or who love them. But also, look at the huge health risk it was to leave all those animals to die, who ended up eating bodies, et. The other thing is they would get deseases, maybe even rabies.

How much easier it would have been to let the owners take them and then if they couldn't stay in shelters, they could have been tagged with the names of their owners, and many re-united later. That would have cut down on the huge number of sick and dying animals, and the horrors we saw happening.

I'm glad this bill is being introduced. What a barbaric country this has become.

[Mairead]

7. "What a barbaric country this has become."

Right on. :(:(:(

[Mairead]

6. bumped AND RECOMMENDED (this story needs to be seen!)

Goddess, but I wish I could go down to NO and help rescue the remaining animals. I feel so miserable thinking about those poor cats and dogs, slowly dying of starvation and thirst.

[shireen]

8. PETITION -- please sign and send to as many people as possible.

"Pet Safe is a Red Cross program in Nassau County, NY that is a cooperative effort of local groups and government working together to assist people and their pets during times of disasters. We're asking the American Red Cross to adopt it as a national program."

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/750226838?ltl=1127410789

[Kadie]

10. Thanks for the link.

Will check it out.

[Hidden Stillness]

9. If You Don't Help the Pets, You Don't Help the People

This is why there needs to be an independent investigation of this whole outrageous disaster, from the crony appointments of incompetents to run FEMA, to willfully ignoring the pleas of Gov. Blanco to help Louisiana, from not fortifying the levees even though there were days available to do it before the hurricane hit, to doing nothing to help the violated people in the New Orleans stadium. They did not allow pets into the stadium because of the "risk" and "germs," yet they allowed violent criminals, sex offenders/rapists, gangs, murderers, to roam all over the stadium, at night when there was no light, unsupervised and not under guard! The animals were not allowed in because they might have made people sneeze, but gangs raped and mrdered victims and no one helped! This is Bush, right here.