Editorial: Pets should not be forgotten

Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005 | 9:32 a.m.

Images and stories about the animals left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are being carried in newspapers and on TV nearly every day, even though the disaster struck more than a month ago. Animal rescue groups are scouring the Gulf Coast rescuing thousands of sick and starving animals and leaving tons of food and water behind for those still out there somewhere.

At the same time, thousands of displaced people in temporary shelters far from their hometowns are sick at heart for having had to abandon their beloved pets -- as per official policy. The buses evacuating people from the Superdome in New Orleans were off limits to pets. Rescue boats searching neighborhoods in the days after Katrina would take people but not their animals. Authorities later moving into the ravaged areas with rescue vehicles had the same attitude. Images on TV showed people with their pets, refusing to be rescued if it meant leaving them behind. The total disregard for people's pets greatly slowed rescue operations and perhaps added to the death toll.

The American Red Cross displayed the same hard-line policy toward animals, refusing them entrance to temporary shelters. Everywhere desperate pet owners went, the rule was the same -- you can come, but not your dog, not your cat, not any animal. Most people who have pets consider them members of the family. The stories that pet owners are telling of their emotional anguish, and images on TV of desperate animals trapped or losing their battle for survival, are heartbreaking.

One of many lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina is that humane plans must be made for accommodating animals during disasters that require mass evacuations. Without compassion toward animals, evacuations of people will be chaotic.

And there is a secondary reason. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a veterinarian, recently returned from a day of observing the animal situation in Louisiana. He talked about starving dogs forming packs that could be dangerous to humans, and about the potential of dead and dying animals spreading disease. "It's a serious public health concern," he told the Sun.

The no-animals policy followed by the Red Cross and local rescuers has a rationale -- dogs and cats would create havoc at shelters, people would be bitten and scratched, many people are allergic to animals. But all such problems could be solved through good planning. Pet owners and their animals could be grouped and evacuated together, or animals could be evacuated separately as long as their owners knew where they were going. Any plan is better than forcing pet owners to just leave their pets behind to starve, drown or be preyed upon.