How animal shelters prepare for emergencies

Learn how animal shelters prepare for emergencies, ensuring the safety of pets with effective plans, training, and community support.

From electrical fires to natural disasters, a range of emergencies impact animal shelters, just as they do our homes or businesses. It can be challenging enough to ensure your own dog or cat stays safe during a crisis. But how do animal shelters, which often have dozens of dogs and cats in their care, manage to keep their four-footed residents protected and cared for in case of emergencies?

Three rules for emergency situations

Dr. Douglas Mader is a veterinarian as well as a certified first responder and a consultant for both branches of the Florida Keys SPCA. As such, he is well-versed in helping shelters prep for disaster, and has three rules for emergency situations:

The shelter needs a detailed plan for emergencies — one that includes evacuation protocols as well as shelter-in-place protocols.
Shelter staff should review and update the plan often – once a month if possible, especially if the shelter is located in a region prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires or floods.
Assign individual staff members and volunteers to take responsibility for specific jobs. Since some individuals may be unable to reach the facility during a crisis, everyone should be cross-trained to fill in as needed.

“Having an Emergency Standard Operating Procedure in place for an animal shelter is paramount to ensuring the safety and well-being of the animals in our care,” says Guinnevere Shuster, Director of Marketing & Communications at the Humane Society of Utah. “It equips our team with the knowledge and tools to respond swiftly and effectively in crisis situations, minimizing stress and risk for both the animals and staff.”

Covering all the bases in times of crisis

To help prepare for an emergency, all the animals in a shelter’s care need proper identification that must travel with them if evacuation is necessary. This means good record-keeping is vital. Medical records need to be up to date and attached to the animal or her crate/carrier. Older and special needs animals must travel with clear care instructions. Shelters should save all records for each dog and cat offsite and in the cloud, in case computers and paper records at the facility are unavailable or destroyed.

Shelters are advised to prepare emergency kits with several days’ worth of food, water and medicine for all the animals, and keep the kits near their crates or cages. This helps make for a smoother, swifter evacuation if it becomes necessary to leave quickly.

Extra sets of clean scrubs, along with a store of food and water, are important for staff and volunteers in the event they need to shelter in place.

Dr. Mader suggests shelters keep an extra month’s supply of regularly prescribed medicines on hand.

During power outages, a generator helps keep shelter animals cool in the summer, and warm in the winter.

When feasible, an offsite storage unit can be invaluable for extra crates, food, bottled water, bowls, and blankets.
Practice drills allow staff and volunteers to learn evacuation routes, emergency procedures, and their individual responsibilities during a crisis.
Some animal organizations, such as the ASPCA, offer sample evacuation plans for shelters.

Animal shelters house a lot of dogs and cats, but with a well-thought-out and frequently-rehearsed emergency plan in place, they can save every precious life in the event of an emergency or disaster.

Shelters helping shelters

If evacuation is necessary, temporary foster homes for the animals, or transport to other shelters, may be needed. Reciprocal agreements with one or more shelters allow a facility out of harm’s way to take in animals displaced by evacuation. Often, shelters will have several agreements in place.

“We have reciprocal agreements with two local municipal animal shelters in the region to assist with housing should something ever happen to our building,” says Guinnevere.

Assessing in-shelter risks

Shelters often consult with local fire departments, police departments, and rescue units, which can have someone walk through the facility and point out areas of concern. For example, bags of dry food may attract vermin that could chew on electrical wiring and cause a fire. Police may advise installation of a silent alarm system in case of disgruntled clients or thieves. Rescue units can suggest improved mass exit plans and placement for backup generators.

“We consulted the local fire department and have alarms that, when activated, contact them directly,” says Guinnevere. “The fire department responds quickly, even if it’s just a bag of burnt popcorn in the microwave that sets off the alarm.”

Evacuation or shelter in place?

Depending on the nature of the emergency, shelter staff and volunteers need to be able to leap into action immediately.

In the event of a hurricane, people are alerted far enough ahead of time that they can board up windows and take cover or leave. Volunteer drivers have the time to evacuate dogs and cats to an area outside the storm’s path.
With a tornado, there can be very little warning. A blaring public announcement to head for cover is often the first clue a funnel cloud is approaching. This means shelter staff need to know the safest locations inside the facility where they can move the animals to shelter in place.
Floods can go either way; there may be time to sandbag, but flash floods can roar through a formerly dry creek bed without much notice. Shelters situated near rivers or low-lying areas need to be cognizant of local flood risks.
Wildfires travel fast and change direction with the wind, so animal shelters in fire-prone regions need to stay informed about any nearby blazes and prepare to evacuate if conditions worsen.

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