Rescuing Animals In Times Of Natural Disaster

The award-winning public television series "NATURE" is an ongoing series of stories about miraculous second chances for pets. In the TV program "Katrina's Animal Rescue," viewers will see and hear the stories of joy and heartbreak as rescue workers risk their own lives to save more than 250,000 pets stranded during Hurricane Katrina.

Natural hazards such as tornadoes, fires, blizzards, droughts and floods can take a heavy toll on people and their pets. Whether it be sub-zero temperatures, floods, hurricanes or droughts, people anguish about their property losses and their missing or injured pets.

When a disaster is approaching, rescuers will come to your door to tell you to evacuate in five minutes. Other than getting dressed and taking some valuable items, the pet stays in the home as there is no room in the evacuation vehicle and Red Cross emergency shelters do not allow pets. People from around our country are being trained to search for, rescue and reunite pets with their owners.

The American Humane Association, based in Englewood, Colorado, is called by the local authorities to rescue animals at risk from natural disasters. Their Disaster Relief Team assesses the community's animal shelter needs immediately after the disaster, makes a list of needs such as food, water, portable kennels and dispatches a mobile communications unit to the disaster area.

Some relief activities of the AHA has been to provide tons of food for 8,000 starving elk in Yellowstone as well as the lost, injured and homeless pets after Hurricane Hugo and Andrew in 1989 and 1992 and the earthquake in California in 1994. Since the 1970s, the AHA has had a partnership with the American Red Cross and more recently they are trying to work out a plan so that pets can be rescued at the same time as their owners.