Hello FMLers,
This is a long post, so I've split it into two parts.  I'm hoping many of
you will print out Part II and use it to begin a disaster kit for your
pets.  I've been a ferret owner for almost 20 years, and a mostly-lurker
on this board for the past three years.  I'm also a member of a wonderful
volunteer rescue organization known as EARS (Emergency Animal Rescue
Service) which has been helping to save animals from natural and man-made
disasters since the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  This group, made up of several
thousand trained volunteers nationwide,has provided shelter, search and
rescue, adoption and re-uniting services to millions of Americans forced
from their homes due to floods, fires, earthquakes, etc.  The group also
trains civil emergency personnel, firefighters, animal control officers and
other concerned people who have to mobilize evacuations and assist people
during emergencies.
 
The problem, as many of you already know, is that Red Cross and other
shelters do not accept animals.  When ordered to evacuate, many people
don't have the basic necessities they will need to keep their pets alive:
food, water, medical supplies, and shelter for their pets while they're
displaced from home.  Often people are forced to abandon their pets and
hope, by some miracle, that they survive.  Most do not.  This is where
EARS steps in.
 
Check out the EARS website at www.uan.org.  In Parti II I've copied for
you a basic preparedness checklist, condensed from info on the EARS site.
Start compiling the kit NOW.  The people in Los Alamos (where EARS is
currently working) didn't have much warning before evacuation, nor did
the homeowners inundated by floods in North Carolina last year.
 
The EARS link off the UAN website has tons of information and contacts for
you.  Feel free to contact me, too, if you have questions or would like to
find the rescue coordinator closest to your area.  Rescue training sessions
are held in at least a dozen cities across the US each year.  I have a
schedule if anyone is interested.
 
But one thing you can do right now is share the disaster kit list in Part
II with other people you know who love their pets, too.  May 20 is Animal
Disaster Preparedness Day, so be prepared to help your furry loved ones!
Susann
[Posted in FML issue 3052]