How to Prepare Your Pets for an Emergency

Did you know that May 11th is National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day? Every year, this day should serve as a reminder to pause, and take a moment to go over your emergency preparedness plan. Not only should you have a plan for your children and spouse, you should include your pets as well. Follow this guide to get started.

 Identify Pets in Household

There are many ways to notify emergency responders or neighbors of the pets in your home, but one of the most effective ways is by placing a small window sticker near your main entrance. Organizations like ASPCA offer free stickers that have space to fill out information about your pets like name and breeds.

These can come in handy if you ever have to evacuate your pets, or if an emergency happens outside the home and neighbors need to care for your pets. You can also leave instructions for anyone temporarily caring for pets, including phone number to the vet and close family members.

Assign Responsibility

While emergencies can catch you off guard, and you never know what could happen, it’s still a good idea to put one person in charge of gathering the pets together, should an emergency occur. Choose an adult in the house that is tasked with finding and calming pets if something comes up. Just in case this person is out of the house when emergency strikes, everyone should learn the plan you put in place.

Plan and Practice  

Your family can spend hours making a plan in the event of an emergency, but it won’t do any good if you don’t also practice it. These steps will help you create the perfect plan:

1.     Agree on a meeting place outside the home. This could be a nearby park, your child’s school or a neighbor’s house.

2.     Prepare emergency kits with food, water, first aid kits, a leash and important phone numbers. Don’t forget copies of your pets ID tags!

3.     Place items in easy to reach, easy to remember, locations in your house

4.     Practice the routine frequently to keep it fresh in your mind

Emergencies are never easy to handle, but it makes it less difficult when you plan ahead! To learn more about keeping your pets safe from emergencies or natural disasters, please feel free to reach out to Laveen Vet Center.