Pets And Increasing
Your Chances in
Disasters
by
Jennifer
Covarubio-Yarra
Do you believe in global warming? Even if you don’t believe
in global warming, there is one thing that you cannot close your eyes to. What
is this you might ask? Disasters. And that there seems to be more and more disasters
happening that are natural, and they are becoming more intense in nature. For
example:
The 2018 wildfire season, which happened to be the deadliest
and most destructive wildfire season on record in California. This wildfire
burned over 1,893,913 acres.
Another example of these natural made disasters was Hurricane
Michael, which happened to be the third intense Atlantic hurricane that hit
landfall.
Although both disasters were different in some ways, they both
shared one thing in common.
What they both shared was that some of the people that went through
these disasters had animals that they truly cared about.
People have learned to prepare for themselves and have
places where they can go to stay safe in times of need, and if you don’t have
animals it is easier to evacuate. But what if you do have animals? Then you are
facing a problem. Most shelters do not accept animals.
Many people with animals do not evacuate because they do not
want to leave their animals behind. These people are willing to stick it out
and ride out the disaster.
A recent survey that was done stated that over 30% of people
do not evacuate due to not wanting to leave their animals behind.
This is an issue that is real and not good for anyone, even
if you are able to survive the disaster.
First, it makes it harder for the first responders to get to
you. Second, you have just put yourself and those around you in danger. Third,
your chances of surviving become minimal.
As you can see, it is not good for anyone.
My proposition is to help increase the chances of surviving a disaster
for everyone, especially for those that have animals.
If we can have comfort kits for people and their animals and help them prepare now or mitigate before a disaster strikes, we are able to save more lives.
1) People will have an action plan for themselves and their
fur babies in place.
2) They will know how to evacuate when a disaster is
happening.
3) They won’t be separated from their animals, which will
increase the number of people who evacuate.
4) They will feel more confident and be able to start the
healing process faster after a disaster.
5) Animals won’t run around lost, scared, cold, hungry and
put themselves and first responders in danger, and chances of survival for the
animal will increase.
I would like to have comfort kits that carry in them the
following
1.
Leash
2.
Disposable food bowls
3.
Treats
4.
Small toy
5.
Food
6.
Blankets
7.
Water bottles
8.
And education tools to get prepared for a
disaster
9.
Places to go when evacuating
These will be comfort kits given
to people who have animals to help them.
Another thing that is important is
to start having pet food drives at churches or your place of work or food
pantry,
Where church members or the
community in general can bring in some of the things listed:
10.
Leash
11.
Disposable food bowls
12.
Treats
13.
Small toy
14.
Food
15.
Blankets
16.
Water bottles
So that more people can be aware
of how to prepare and it will be a community and church effort. If a person
feels that they have contributed to a great cause more people will want to be
part of something and the greater number for the greater good will take place. Can
you imagine what will happen the next time a disaster happens, and more people
are safe and survive because we made a difference. It is a win-win situation we
might not be able to save the world, but we can all do our part and start a
movement and save more people.
