How to Protect Your Pet in Case of a Fire
Studies on disaster evacuation show that only 40% of pet owners are prepared to evacuate their pets with the rest of the family.
The remaining 60% evacuate without their pets and then risk their own lives by returning home prematurely to rescue their animals.
Simple foresight and planning can protect both pet owners and their four-legged companions.
Pets depend on us for survival.
To be prepared:
- Include your pets in your family’s evacuation plan.
- Rehearse your evacuation plan repeatedly with your family including your dog.
Have a Pet Safety Kit ready and have an extra kit in your car.
Listen to your dog. Canines have the ability to smell smoke long before humans. If your dog is acting strangely, investigate the situation immediately.
- Be sure your fire evacuation plan accounts for dogs in pens and crates.
- Use Pet Rescue Stickers to inform firefighters that you have a pet or pets inside.
- Research pet friendly lodging so you will have a place to board your pet if necessary.
- Consider installing a dog door that leads outside so an endangered pet has a chance to escape.
- Keep your pets on the ground floor so they will be easier to rescue.
- Give a key to a trusted neighbor and make sure they know where your pet or pets are likely to be in the house so they can inform firefighters.
- If your pet was in a smoke filled building or if you can smell smoke on his fur take him to a veterinarian.
- Make certain you have working smoke detectors on every level of your home and near bedrooms.
- Keep hallways and home exits free of clutter.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS BEHIND IF YOU EVACUATE!
Pets may not survive if left on their own; and if they do, you may not be able to find them when you return. The single most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to take them with you when you evacuate. Animals left behind in a disaster are easily injured, lost or killed. Animals turned loose to fend for themselves become victims of exposure, dehydration, starvation, predators, contaminated food or water, and accidents. Leaving dogs tied or chained to a house is a death sentence.
If you leave, even if you think you will return in few hours, take your pets with you. You have no way of knowing how long you will be kept out of the area and you may not be able to return to retrieve your pets.
Leave early – don’t wait for a mandatory evacuation order. An unnecessary trip is far better than waiting too long to safely leave with your pets. If you wait to be evacuated by emergency officials, you may be told to leave your pets behind.
Julie A. Calligaro is probate and estate planning attorney and author of How to Safeguard Your Pet in an Emergency and at Your Disability or Death and Arranging Your Financial And Legal Affairs. http://www.SafeguardMyDog.com . For a free checklist of the steps that protect your pets during an emergency and at your disability or death and a Pet Care Card to carry if you are injured or hospitalized visit http://www.SafeguardMyDog.com/Nutshell.pdf
16 users commented in " Tips to protect pets in case of fire including evacuation tips "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback[...] the rest of this great post here Post a Comment Read More Post a [...]
some great info on this page,thanks for taking the time.
Don’t thank me thank the author
She submits a lot of articles for people to use free. And in my case she didn’t even mind I changed the wording a bit to make it fit my post right.
I think it is very important to have the information that I read here, and to be honest I wasn’t really even looking for it! Great post!!
great its very interesting subject thank you and we wait for more
Hey Dog Designs you said right. The matter is good to read.
Cybrspin,
you did the well work on the post. The efforts for ” DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS BEHIND IF YOU EVACUATE! ” is so mattering………..Love to know about prevention of animal disasters.
Thank you..
It is awful to know that 60% of people don’t thing of their pets in a fire. I think that it is important to remember you pet, and love the tips you added especially being sure to include the pet in the evacuation plan. I think if you do this it will become second nature and you will have a better chance of remembering you pet.
Great Read!
Luckily my pets can fly
although they still will be in danger if a fire occured
[...] enforcement agencies have free packets available to assist in saving the lives of of our pets. Free Pet Safety Package: In A Nut [...]
Yes, this is sad but true. You hear of so many stories where the family pet was lost in the fire. It is high time to start thinking of them as an important family member, too.
Andy
Really great article. You did an excellent job of explaining how to properly plan for your pet in case of an emergeny. My family and I actually took the time to sit down one sunday morning and put an actual evacuation plan and assigned each person a pet (we have a few little rascles). Also your suggesting to put a pet sticker on the window is great. A lot of people fail to do this and the firemen have no clue that your pet is inside the house. especially if it happens when nobody is home. Very well done. Great post!
Thanks for making this great article.. No one can not know when accident will occure .. and you make us know how to protect pets in case of fire including evacuation …. GREAT JOB
dogs petss last blog post..Dog Cage
hey that was a good read, check out my pet forum sometime at http://www.talkmeow.com
I’m glad you brought this up because I never got around to thinking of a fire escape plan for me or my pets.
That was a really good post. It really has been an eye opener as I have 2 cats and they would not be easily dealt with as a dog so having a plan in place would make things easier.
The article is very useful because usually when something happens we get panic and think first about our children and sometimes forgot about our pets that cannot survive without our help. That’s why we should be prepared.
Leave A Reply