Some good came out of Katrina.
This past Friday at the White House, President Bush signed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act into law.
This landmark legislation, which was strongly backed by The Humane Society of the United States, requires local and state disaster plans to include provisions for household pets and service animals in the event of a major disaster or emergency. When I was in the Gulf during Hurricane Katrina, I saw the government's failure to have a plan for helping animals. Tens of thousands of animals suffered terribly and were lost or left behind because our communities and responders didn't have a plan in place.
With more than 358 million pets in the United States residing in 63 percent of American households, the PETS Act will help ensure that Americans never again are faced with the horrifying choice of abandoning their pet and finding their way to safety, or staying with their pet and remaining in a hazardous, and potentially life-threatening situation.
Some states and local communities have already engaged in disaster preparedness for animals, and with a federal law now in place, the future for you and your companion animal in a disaster is much brighter
