Protecting Your Pet After An Earthquake
Anyone living in an area that is prone to earthquakes should be prepared in advance to safeguard and take care of all family members – including your pets. This requires a thought out pet disaster plan. This plan should include necessary advance preparations as well as possible needed procedures for after an actual earthquake.
A necessary preparation is making sure that you have a reasonable emergency supply of food and water for your pet. If the quake is bad enough, the normal availability of food and water could be disrupted for a length of time. This could especially be true for pet food, which would probably not be considered an urgent item to distribute by emergency workers. Canned and well sealed pet food, properly stored, should stay usable for a long time. The same is true of bottled water. Having a supply of water is crucial, because it is common after an earthquake to lose your potable water supply from your home taps.
Your pet disaster plan should also take into account any medicines your pet takes. Thus, like food and water, you should have an emergency supply of these medicines if possible. It is also a good idea to stock pet “first aid” items to treat you pet if it gets injured during the earthquake, as getting to your vet will be difficult if not impossible.
For pets that are kept outdoors, such as an “outside” cat, you should think in advance of the need for pet rescue. If the cat gets stuck in a tree or in some basement, will you know how and be able to rescue it? Also, if your home becomes uninhabitable after the quake, do you have a place you can send your pet to? In most cases, emergency shelters will not allow pets.
If you are able or have to stay in your home after the quake, there are precautions to take to ensure your pet’s safety that should be part of your pet disaster plan. Make sure your pet can not get into any dangerous areas of your home where there is damage or debris, such as broken glass, exposed wires, damaged walls and ceilings and the like. Also, when walking your dog after an earthquake, be very careful about downed power lines and dangerous damage and debris.
Remember, it pays to plan and prepare in advance, for your whole family – including your precious pets.
