Harvey

Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine photo

Thousands of pets had to be housed in temporary shelters after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana in 2017.

Dr. Debra Zoran has lost count of the number of times people have complained to her about losing their pets during natural disasters.

"I've heard it over and over and over again: 'I didn't think my dog would run off in the middle of the night,' " Zoran said. "If there's a fire bearing down on the house and they're loose, they're running. It's survival instinct."

As for cats, she said, "They will hide or be so scared they're difficult to handle,” she said. “They’re going to find a place to try get and away from this.”

Zoran leads the Veterinary Emergency Team at Texas A&M University, a disaster-response squad that also trains government agencies and veterinary students in disaster preparedness for animals.

Zoran advocates that every practice have an emergency plan. And a key part of that plan, she says, should be to encourage pet owners to have a plan of their own — including ensuring they can calmly control their pets early in an emergency. That could mean leashing a dog, placing a cat in a carrier or just gathering pets in a single room.

"If you hadn't already caught your pets, the minute you start running around like a chicken trying to find a leash or a collar or a carrier, you've lost your chance," she said.

Surveys indicate that disaster preparedness in the veterinary community is patchy, even as climate change is making natural disasters more frequent and intense.

When researchers at Colorado State University's veterinary school surveyed 774 employees at practices across the United States, 35% said their clinic had a disaster preparedness plan, according to research published in January. A slightly greater share, 36%, said they had no plan, and 29% didn't know. At the same time, 79% of respondents indicated feeling that disasters are occurring slightly more frequently or much more frequently now, and 59% felt they were likely or very likely to be affected by one within 10 years.

The findings chime with a series of one-question "quick polls" conducted by the Veterinary Information Network, an online community for the profession and parent of the VIN News Service. In the latest, conducted in October 2024, around 20% of 1,499 respondents said they had a formal written plan, and only half of those said staff had been trained to follow it. A greater share, 37%, didn't know if they had a plan or hadn't thought about it. Around 22% said they didn't have a plan and had no intention of implementing one, and around 17% intended to develop a plan, had discussed protocols or had some rough ideas for a plan.

Earlier VIN quick polls on the topic, conducted since 2016, show the percentages among categories bobbing up and down, with no clear trend over time.

Such poll results don't surprise Zoran, who suspects many practices' preparedness plans are vague to nonexistent. "The natural human condition is, 'If it's never happened to me before, I don't have to worry about it. These things happen to other people,' " she said. "We have seen people remain in denial about their need to prepare over and over again, until the day comes."

Animal owners, for their part, do have an appetite to talk about disaster preparedness with their veterinarian, according to the CSU research. In a survey of 229 clients of practices, the researchers found most clients believe veterinary professionals to be trustworthy sources of information whose support they'd appreciate in developing a preparedness plan for their pets.

Why preparedness matters

One obvious argument for having a plan, Zoran maintains, is that animals are sentient beings worthy of our protection. "Any veterinarian that's taken the Veterinary Oath has signed up for that," she said.

In addition, she and other preparedness experts agree, having a plan to save animals during disasters helps humans, too. That's because some people are so attached to animals, they might risk their lives trying to save them by, say, failing to evacuate when floodwaters are rising or running back into a burning house.

The importance of taking a One Health approach — the idea that humans, other animals and the environment are intertwined — to managing natural disasters gained prominence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast (particularly New Orleans) in 2005. The next year, the U.S. federal government introduced the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, which mandates that any states receiving federal disaster assistance must include pets in their evacuation and sheltering plans. Florida in May passed Trooper's Law, making it illegal in that state to restrain and abandon a dog during a natural disaster. The legislation was named after a dog who was left tied to a fence during Hurricane Milton in 2024. (Trooper was rescued by state Highway Patrol.)

Heightened attention to the issue is global in nature. Last October, for instance, the World Organisation for Animal Health, which is based in France, released a book of simulation exercises to help veterinary professionals prepare for disasters. Last year, the Australian government released a disaster planning handbook dedicated to animals that was inspired, in part, by devastating wildfires in the summer of 2019-20 that one ecologist estimated killed more than a billion animals.

Erica Honey, a veterinary nurse and preparedness expert who helped put the Australian guidebook together, uses the term "love-stock" — a play on the word livestock that she learned from an anthropologist — to illustrate how even animals used for food can have emotional value to farmers.

"That was one of the key motivators to produce the handbook: How seriously people care for animals — even horses and wildlife that don't even belong to them and they've never met before," Honey said.

Recognizing the strength of the human-animal bond in disaster preparedness goes beyond considering animals' economic and emotional worth. Natural disasters can create optimal conditions for disease outbreaks, including zoonotic diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans.

"If you're not dealing with animals in disasters, you are going to have serious disease problems post-disaster," Zoran said. "You're going to have animal death, animal injury and animal illness everywhere — and in some cases these illnesses can impact human health."

Dr. Debra Zoran

TAMU CVM photo by Jason Nitsch

Dr. Debra Zoran (left) and colleagues used a medical laser to treat muscle soreness and injury in search and rescue dogs that assisted during floods this year along the Guadalupe River in central Texas.

Plan, then practice

Given the gravity of the consequences of being unprepared, Dr. Colleen Duncan, a professor of pathology at CSU who led its preparedness research, agrees with Zoran that every clinic should have a plan — and give it trial runs.

"Developing a plan, revisiting it regularly and practicing it with the whole team is so important," she said. "Of course, nobody wants to be in a situation where they have to use it, but disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, and they are happening in places where residents are often not expecting them — think the recent wildfires in Los Angeles or inland floods following Hurricane Helene."

The Los Angeles wildfires Duncan referenced happened in January, not a time of year that wildfire historically has struck the region. Still, some residents were well familiar with wildfire risk and planned accordingly. Dr. Dean Graulich, for example, having already lost his home to fire in 2018, was ready for this year's onslaught. He'd established evacuation plans for his home and practice, taken online fire safety training and purchased a trailer loaded with fire-suppressing foam and a firefighting suit, as reported by VIN News.

Honey, who also runs a consultancy in Australia that helps veterinary practices and government agencies prepare for disasters, says the most comprehensive plans take an "all-hazards" approach. "This means initially focus on the key risks for your area," she said, offering the example of wildfires in dry, heavily vegetated places. "If close to the ocean, also plan for tsunamis, storm surges and tornados. Create separate sections within the plan for other hazards, including earthquakes and biosecurity."

Zoran says even practices in seemingly safe places need a serious plan. She recalled a recent incident involving a small animal clinic near a strip mall. A wayward vehicle crashed into an above-ground gasoline transportation pipe, blowing up the pipe, their car and part of a big-box store. The veterinary practice's windows blew out, and it lost all power.

"That's just one of five or six similar examples I could give off the top of my head to show why you need a plan," Zoran said. "This could happen to your practice or your home in the middle of a blue, sunny day."

Disaster need not strike for a plan to pay off, notes CSU's Duncan. Microchipping, for instance, can help owners find pets lost for myriad other reasons. Recording a neighbor's phone number might help folks address a problem in their home while they're traveling. "There are potential co-benefits even if your household or clinic never needs to use the plan in a natural disaster,” Duncan said.

Basic ingredients of a good plan

When preparing a plan, Honey recommends that practices familiarize themselves with community response frameworks to work out what their roles and responsibilities will be during a disaster, which levels of government (local versus state) handle different elements of a disaster response, and what kind of help they'd be able to provide. That means getting in touch with local authorities, including fire and police departments, and making a list of emergency contacts.

Networking with nearby veterinary practices to draw up a coordinated response plan is crucial, she added, particularly with and among emergency and critical care hospitals that can handle large caseloads.

Sound planning also encompasses delegating roles and responsibilities within a veterinary practice.

"You have to know who's in your building. You have to have a chain of command," Zoran said. "Who's the boss person, and what are the next layers of responsibility? The front desk's job might be lock up the cash drawer or help shuttle people out. Somebody's got to be responsible for controlled drugs, personnel, animal evacuation and so on. It's about having a structure of people and knowing who's in the building so you can account for everybody."

What to do with the animals? Much will depend on whether a practice is dealing with a looming threat (like a hurricane brewing off the coast) or an immediate threat (like a gas explosion caused by a car crash).

Early evacuation of animals is ideal, said Honey, preferably to somewhere they feel comfortable, whether it be their home or that of a family member, friend or neighbor. If they need care, a clinic in a safe place is an obvious choice or a designated or pop-up animal shelter established in line with government response planning.

For sudden threats, being prepared to shelter in place and having the practice property set up to minimize risk is important, Honey advises. For wildfire risk, for example, that could mean installing sprinkler systems, minimizing flammable plants and removing leaf litter. Shelter-in-place kits containing a week's supply of food, water and first-aid supplies are important to have available, Honey said.

Each practice should have several exit routes, she added. Ideally, vehicles and horse trailers should be in good repair and gas tanks at least half full so they're always ready to use. Making sure electric vehicles are fully charged could provide an additional benefit: One veterinarian in Florida reportedly used the batteries in her two electric vehicles to power her clinic during Hurricane Debby last year.

For hastier evacuations, Zoran recommends establishing a "lily pad" — a designated meeting point in a safe location where everyone can take stock of people and animals. "You can decide who can be released to their pet parents and who needs to move to your designated hospital partner for care. This gives you the opportunity to say to clinic X, ‘We’ve got five coming your way,’ rather than just evacuating with your hair on fire and showing up saying, ‘Hi, we’re here. We just blew up your day.’ ”

Ensuring patients can be identified in the aftermath of emergencies is crucially important, too. That involves ensuring animals are microchipped and their owners' contact information is kept up-to-date on registries. Zoran recommends practices give patients neck collars so they can be identified confidently and quickly during the fog of an emergency. Large animals like horses could be marked with animal-safe spray paint, Honey says.

Joey

WA Wildlife photo

A juvenile western grey kangaroo recovers from minor burns at a hospital in Perth, Australia, following a wildfire in 2021.

Treating wildlife poses unique challenges

Until 2021, it hadn't occurred to Dean Huxley to equip the wildlife charity he leads in Perth, Australia, with tranquilizer guns. That changed after a wildfire there razed 40 square miles of land, destroying dozens of houses and killing countless animals.

During previous wildfires, the charity's dedicated wildlife hospital hired a professional shooter to tranquilize animals needing treatment or euthanize them if they couldn't be saved. But in 2021, his team couldn't find a shooter, not only because the disaster, known as the Wooroloo bushfire, was so extensive, but because it hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel was restricted.

"There were animals, a lot of them kangaroos, that we had to leave, and we knew they were going to die slowly," Huxley said.

Since then, the hospital has acquired firearms and trained some staff to use them. It also has had a few of its non-veterinarians licensed with the state veterinary practice board to allow them to euthanize animals in the field.

In Huxley's experience, disaster preparedness plans are more common at large animal practices that might have to move half a dozen horses or emergency clinics more equipped to deal with large volumes of critical cases. For wildlife hospitals like his, assisting during disasters is so core to their function that many are built with disaster preparedness in mind.

Huxley is chief executive of WA Wildlife, which employs seven veterinarians at a 700-square-meter purpose-built veterinary hospital that can handle up to 10,000 wildlife cases a year.

How can veterinarians in smaller practices help wildlife during an emergency? First, Huxley said, it's crucial they understand their limitations.

"If they're just providing a triage or a treatment opportunity at their clinics, we always encourage that, particularly because, unfortunately, there's often a high euthanasia rate with wildlife post bushfires, and if they can provide that service, that's a positive animal welfare outcome," Huxley said.

"Where the challenge lies is when they're wanting to go out onto a fire ground and help recover wildlife in the burn zone. It's difficult because there is a lot of training involved for that activity. We have internal operating systems that they don't know, so you have to onboard them and train them, which takes staff away from what they're already trying to do."

Among changes inspired by the Wooroloo fire was a decision by the organization to introduce a training course for veterinarians and veterinary nurses that would enable them to volunteer at the hospital during disasters. It now has a database of more than 100 people who've completed training. Another around 1,000 have taken a simpler online course. "They've got some good foundation skills but would need a bit more practical up-skilling to step in during a disaster," he said.

Specialist skills could involve learning the intricacies of washing a pelican versus a penguin following an oil spill and knowing how to participate in "black walks" — search and rescue missions into charred bushland — while avoiding unsafe trees, burning peat and venomous snakes. "Black walk groups always have a snake re-locator or rescuer, and there's always someone with a firearm," Huxley said.

Helping animal owners help themselves

The researchers at CSU have conducted a follow-up study exploring ways veterinarians can provide preparedness material to clients. Specifically, they compared "passive distribution" that entailed placing laminated flyers on exam room walls and tables and "active distribution" that involved physically handing out flyers.

"We tracked engagement using a QR code and found that clients were more than five times more likely to engage when the flyer was handed to them," Dr. Danni Scott, the lead researcher, said.

The researchers identified practical ways to actively engage pet owners without adding time to appointments. Examples include having front desk staff hand out flyers when clients check in or out, harnessing existing resources like the American Veterinary Medical Association's pets and disasters guide and tapping into existing campaigns like Disaster Preparedness Month, held each September.

"If you don't have time during consultation to talk about this, your practice can have an open-house day where you talk to your clients about disaster preparedness," Zoran suggested. "You can also have flyers on your front desk. We should be pushing and promoting this. It can save lives."