Animal Rescue Activities in Stricken Areas after Hurricane Katrina
ハリケーン・カトリーナ被災地における動物救援活動
Rebecca RHOADES, D.V.M. Executive Director, Kauai Humane Society
レベッカ・ローアデス カウアイヒューメインソサエティー エグゼクティブ ディレクター
I want to ﬁrst thank you all for inviting

attention to the No Pets Left Behind movement and theme to come back to Kobe to speak

public demand that followed. There were many scenes

with you. I was lucky enough to beon TV of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina and the lack ofhere a couple years ago and Iʼm veryplanning and response afterwards. My slide shows

happy to come back again.

some people standing in line waiting for transport, andSpecifically I will speak about whatʼsthis was a dog left behind after the transport had left.

been going on in the US since
Hurricane Katrina. It turned our world upside down

Unfortunately I could not ﬁnd a picture of one particularwhich is something I think has also happened to Japanboy who appeared on TV around the world. He had

due to your earthquake. So many things have changed

been forced to get on a bus and leave his little whiteand I would like to tell you a little story and point out

dog called Snowball behind. It was a very tragic scene

why this all happened. It is very similar to the story inand one that changed the world for animals in the US.

Japan.

There is a quote from a congressman about how, as heand the rest of the world, watched images of theFollowing Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005,

heartbreaking choices the Gulf residents had to make,millions of Americans saw the suﬀering of families andhe was moved to ﬁnd a way to prevent this from every

their pets on TV. How many of you saw any of that TV

happening again.

here in Japan? It must have been millions and Iʼm surethe images were shown all around the world, images of

Unfortunately the little dog Snowball was never

the rescue efforts for both people and animals. But

reunited with the family which was a very sad situation.

Hurricane Katrina also started a movement called ʻNo

However the story of Snowball and the little boy did

Pets Left Behindʼ. The significant thing about thishelp precipitate a change in the law called the ʻPETS

movement was that it was a conglomeration of nineActʼ, which is a new federal law in the US.

national animal welfare organizations in the US, all ofwhich spoke the same voice together - something we

The PETS Act stands for ʻThe Petʼs Evacuation anddonʼt usually do. But a new coalition was also formed atTransportation Standardsʼ Act. This was a major change

the time of Katrina to work together in response toin the US, and it became federal law in just over a year

disasters. The name of that coalition is ʻThe National

after Hurricane Katrina. Never before in the US had we

Animal Rescue and Sheltering Coalitionʼ. Coalition

been concerned for companion animals at the national

members include the Humane Society of the Unitedlevel. The only national level efforts were towards

States, American Humane Association, The ASPCA, The

controlling diseases, helping protect public health andNational Animal Control Association, Best Friends

safety regarding livestock, zoonotic and disease

Animal Sanctuary, United Animal Nations, Code Threecontrols. We had never seen much activity or legislation

Associates, and Society of Animal Welfare

relating to companion animal welfare. It became aAdministrators which I represent.

whole new ﬁeld of activity at the national level.

Very large organizations on a national scale got

The law that received the amendment was the Staﬀord

together and all worked together. We were able toAct. This is the law that helps provide resources

move the community forward thanks to the media

following a disaster. It allows the US Government toWorkshop Ⅰ

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11actually prevent, mitigate and then respond after a

Department of Agriculture, (USDA) which has taken adisaster.

very signiﬁcant role regarding work with pets, and the
Health and Human Services Agency of the United

There were many changes made to national laws as aStates.

result of Katrina and this PETS Act declared FEMA (TheFederal Emergency Management Agency) to be theThis was unbelievably historic for the US, and at thisprimary agency to deal with animals along with aconference I have sensed that the same thing is

couple of partners following a disaster.

happening in Japan. I have been working with a coupleof national committees to help our governments makeNowadays in the US, if an individual state has no plan in

definitions and define these plans for companion

place to help protect household pets and service

animals, because we had nothing before. This has also

animals in a disaster, if the disaster is so big that itʼs

been very good because it has helped raise the status ofcalled a Federal scale disaster (thatʼs a level at which thepeople working in animal control, animal shelters andUS government comes in to help), and the disaster isanimal rescue, as well as the veterinary world that

too big for the county or state to handle by itself, thenrelates to companion animals.

they will not receive any money from the US
government. They will also receive no reimbursement

It is a huge project - weʼre now creating deﬁnitions forlater for anything that they did. This is the reason thatthese professions working with companion animals that

this law has been so signiﬁcant, and why, all across theare going to be consistent across the United States. Just

country, all states have been actively preparing andlike when, years ago, we defined firefighters, police

creating disaster plans for the pets in all of ourofficers and even medical personnel. Weʼre now

communities. If they donʼt do this they will not becreating some very good definitions and giving status

eligible to be reimbursed for all the equipment,

to the people dealing with companion animals that

supplies, time, staﬀ hours, needed to address a disasterwork side by side with our emergency responders suchin their community.

as ﬁreﬁghters, police oﬃcers. They are gaining a lot of
respect as we build these relationships from the federal

Here are a couple of things about this law - thelevel all the way down to the local community.

Government had to deﬁne what animals this legislation
pertained to. It pertains to household pets, defined as

So, I have talked about the law as a lot has beendogs, cats, birds, rabbits, rodents, or turtles that are kept

happening on that. But let me tell you a few stories

for pleasure. Theyʼre not kept for business or for food orabout what has happened since Hurricane Katrina andanything like that. They are household pets kept for

how much better we are with our responses, althoughpleasure.

we still have a long way to go.

And then there was a new deﬁnition added into federal

The first story goes back to 2007 with the California

law for the deﬁnition of service animals. Again, if a state

wildﬁres. They had to evacuate a million people out of

has a disaster but does not have a plan in place andthe San Diego area and the process went very because

needs to call for resources from beyond their state, theypeople were encouraged to bring all their animals withwill have to pay for them. So all the states across the US

them.

are now working very hard and fast to create
emergency plans for pets.

In the slide you can see a building that looks like a big
coliseum. They kept horses in this coliseum. In fact they

12

FEMA (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) is

had all kinds of animals, both people and the pets. It

the key agency that weʼre working with to help develop

was managed by an NGO, not the government but they

these plans. Their partners are The United States

worked side by side. But an NGO had acted as theWorkshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikesmanager, or lead agency, for the ʻpets and people areaʼ

Gustav storm was not so bad and not everybody had toin which people and their animals were allowed to be

be evacuated. Although it did not cause much damage,

together. It was very unique and the ﬁrst time we had

it did serve as a very good lesson.

practiced some of the plans we had been working on
after Hurricane Katrina.

I have something else I want to share with you. The
veterinary school in Louisiana, the local veterinary

The wildﬁres were declared a federal disaster, which iscommunity, the national animal shelters, NGO shelters,

huge for the United States. That is, they asked for, andand animal rescue people all joined together to form awere declared, a federal disaster. As such, California wasteam called ʻL-S-A-R-Tʼ. Most of the states in the US areafterwards able to submit the expenses for theworking to form these teams, and bring all theseevacuation and for people care to FEMA for

partners together to create their plans. The slide shows

reimbursement. They were able to ask for overtime,

the website for LSART.org. This is a very valuablesalaries, fuel, equipment and supplies. If the disaster is a

website for anybody anywhere to get training, plans,

federally declared disaster then anything needed for an

and find out what theyʼre doing to help these masse v a c u a t i o n a n d s h e l t e r, a n y t h i n g f o r r e s c u i n gevacuations, as well as how to set up a shelter with yourhousehold pets - can be submitted for reimbursement

veterinary partners and everything. This shows very

to the federal government.

good cooperation between government, universities,
and the private sector.

While it was not the same scale of incident as the
Katrina floods and hurricane, it was a very successful

Within a week later, we had Hurricane Ike. Once again

evacuation of millions of people.

the area was getting hit hard. I must show you a pictureon this slide. You can see this little house here? This was

In 2008, we had our biggest scare in Louisiana since

Galveston Island and there is only one house left. I donʼ

Hurricane Katrina. A large storm hit us named Hurricane

t know if any of you saw this here on the news. This

Gustav. The State had thoroughly practiced how theyhouse had just been built, and built to be hurricane

would move people from the New Orleans area up to

proof. I bet the guy who built it later made millions ofsafety in the north beyond the threatened area. Their

dollars, because itʼs the only one standing. The whole

practices were so thorough that they had even done

island was horribly wiped out, yet this house remained

studies through the USDA to show how many animal

and to me this is an amazing picture.

crates they could put in a refrigerated semi-truck. They
knew how high they could stack them, and they even

So we had Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike in 2008.

tested to see how the animals would cope. They had

We had practiced, had done some planning, and wemany large semi-trucks all loading up the pets, andhad a very good response with the national groups. We

busses to take the people up to the mega-shelter in thehave worked with them and together created trainings.

north. It was a very successful evacuation of theWe have worked with our federal government partners

Louisiana area.

and created best practices for sheltering animals,
handling them, vaccinations, disease-control, andThe photo in my slide shows the big mega-shelter set-

everything, to assure a safe response and be able toup for pets being evacuated from the Louisiana area.

save the animals. We try to get them reunited with theirThis was a partnership between the state of Louisianaʼsfamilies or to re-home them if there is no family, or if

government team (that developed this program) andtheir families canʼt return for them. So it was a very

the nine national animal welfare groups of the coalition.

successful response for Hurricane Ike. This photo shows

We all worked together to help set it up, manage it anda group of about a nine different organizations thatsafely evacuate the New Orleans area. Many lessons

responded down there for the Houston SPCA, whichwere learned and it was very successful. Fortunately thewas the lead NGO agency in the area. The SPCA

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13responded as part of the state Texas SART (State Animal

diﬀerent county. Thereʼs Hawaii Island, and then Maui

Resource Team), and they all worked very well together.

(which actually has Maui County, Lanai, Molokai). Thereis also Oahu with Honolulu (where all the people live),

So now in the US, we are not just surviving oﬀ peopleʼsand then Kauai where I am. We have four major

generosity or donations from the public to help pay forhumane societies in the state, and each one of us, in our

all of this work. Itʼs now being paid for by therespective counties, performs the countyʼs animal

government, and that is a huge change. We can send

control work, or we contract government work. That isout our people or provide resources and later getin addition to being an NGO, (which can seem

reimbursed. Now we donʼt risk going broke if we donʼt

confusing). So each of us contracts the government

get the public donations to support our work.

work for animal control in each of our counties.
Together we have created a coalition (agency) to act asThis goes back to many of the messages said here today

lead agency for ESF19 to take care of pet sheltering,that “protecting animals is protecting people”, and “itʼstransportation, and rescue in the event of a disaster inabout the whole family”. We have really succeeded to

Hawaii.

make that clear in the US. We still struggle a little but,for the most part, the message has been made clear. If

In most cases, our storms only hit one part of thecommunities donʼt carry out emergency planningislands, or just a part of an island. They donʼt usually hit

measures, theyʼre going to suffer financially. Disasterthe state as a whole, so we can assist each other. If

planning for pets is now happening at all levels, local,

something happens on Oahu, we can all come from thestate, and federal. And in Hawaii in May 6, 2008, ourother islands. If it happens on Kauai those islands will

governor signed into law that pets needed to become over and assist me. Just like here in Japan, there

included into the ʻHawaii Planʼ. No longer is it justis a challenge on the islands. We cannot just simply

private charities providing all of the services or thedrive to the far north. Weʼre stuck. So we try to create aresources for pets. It is now a government responsibility.

lot of hurricane-proof shelters (government buildings)
which are places we evacuate people to if they donʼt

In Hawaii, as for all US, the States define their

have safe homes. Now they can bring their pets to thoseemergency functions as ʻEmergency Support Functionsʼshame shelters.

or ʻESFsʼ (as we call them). And we had one ESF
established in Hawaii just for pets. Many ESFs are

Again if an event is bigger than Hawaii can handle, andcombined with other ones, but we made it “Number

declared a federal disaster, the federal government will19”, and itʼs speciﬁcally for pets. This is recognition by

provide support and help respond to the incident. And,the government that pets are to be included. This waswith the passage of the PETS Act, and now with ESF19

hard to achieve because our governments, and people

planning, Hawaii can be reimbursed for the state all theworking in the government, donʼt think thereʼs enoughway down to local level. The Kauai Humane Society can

resources for humans. They question how we can start

be reimbursed from the federal government for ourto establish things for pets? But, as said before, if you

work to help with a disaster.

donʼt protect the pets, youʼre not protecting thefamilies. People will not leave their home in disaster

What actually happens is that, if the disaster is beyond

situations or seek shelter if they canʼt take their pets. So

Hawaiiʼs capability, the fedʼs come in and contact ourit goes hand in hand.

closest states ‒ Arizona and California - who send theresources to assist us. In addition, we have this over-14

I will explain how it works in Hawaii. We established aarching partnership or support from the nine national

state organization of animal welfare agencies calledorganizations ‒ animal welfare organizations that will

HAAWA which stands for ʻthe Hawaii Association ofalso assist us as well as the national or the American

Animal Welfare Agenciesʼ. In Hawaii, each island is a

Veterinary Medical Association and American Animal

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Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes

Hospital Association. A lot of the agreements are madeemergency responders (firefighters, police officers,in advance to help pre-storm or pre-incident for

emergency personnel) have all used this language forresources to assist with rescue sheltering or post-storm

many years, we are now also trained and using it. We

activities. If you create these beforehand agreements,

receive much better cooperation and respect as a resultand everybody knows them, and has signed off onand the status of our profession - people working withthem, they will be reimbursable because they arecompanion animals, sheltering and animal control ‒ has

functioning to help support the local area.

been elevated.

So planning and preparing is critical, and it is now

I will explain the procedures quickly, because they are

required by law. Weʼve created working agreements

not part of my presentation slides. If anybodyʼswith the other humane organizations as well as theinterested I have made a copy of them available. So if

state Red Cross and the State Departments of

you contact Knots, Iʼm sure we can get it to you.

Education, Agriculture, and the Hawaii Medical Hawaii

Basically the way it works is for us to go in and set up

Veterinary Medical Association.

what we call an ʻemergency pet shelterʼ. We justpracticed doing this last weekend when we had to

Humane Societies working with school districts or theevacuate many people from the North Shore on several

Department of Education never happened before. They

islands, because of high surf. We had 50 foot waves

were not very happy to work with us when the

coming into Hawaii so we evacuated many families,

Governor told them that dogs, cats, turtles and rabbits

opened shelters, and sent our people from the humane

can now come into the schools if we have to evacuate

societies to manage the pets with the people. It wentand protect families. They said “no way” because they

really well but we had practiced our plan.

thought ﬂees etc would aﬀect their classrooms. But we
sat down at the table and really started working on thisSo you have one person acting as the lead. Perhaps you

together. The idea is not to have people and their pets

just have one person for the whole shelter, but ideally

all in the same room. It is about having a very

you get enough people trained, both volunteers andcontrolled environment where the people are in one

staﬀ. You need lots of volunteers. You need one personroom, and the pets in another room, where the people

in charge of people, one person in charge of dogs, one

are still required to take care of their own pet. Next I

for cats, and then a veterinary section to help with any

will try and take you through that system brieﬂy so you

injured animals. In this plan we have our volunteers (orgain an idea of what weʼre trying to do in Hawaii to help

staff ) color-coded based on their level of experience.

with emergency sheltering for families if there is a need

Purple is the weakest and means they have no animal

for an evacuation.

experience. They are assigned to be with people andnot to do anything with the animals. Green coded

Statewide ‒ that is, with everyone from the different

individuals can work with friendly animals only. Thoseother islands, we trained together so that we all use thecoded yellow can probably work with ʻcaution animalsʼ.

same plan and talk the same language. Weʼre actuallyThis coding goes all the way to ʻredʼ for people with theusing the federal model. Everyone from the federal

most experience or the manager and the one that has

government downwards is supposed to be trained inextensive animal experience. This goes hand in handthe “ICS” or “Incident Command System”. (I wonder; iswith the animal behavior status which is also color-

there such a system in Japan?) In the United States thecoded. We have talked about these stressful situations.

system is part of the national response framework, andThe animals are away from home, are scared and will

weʼre all trying to speak and learn the same incident

bite. If they are not very easy to manage, we need tocommand language. Originally it came from military

have some experienced people. We have to color codeﬁreﬁghters, but now weʼre all using it. The result is that,the animals as they come in. Green refers to a very

whereas other agencies in the community such as

friendly animal, one that is obviously easy for the less-Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes

15experienced volunteers to handle. But if an animal isyou donʼt want to position cats right next to dogs, ormarked red then only a very experienced volunteer will

where you will be placing the food. There will be many

be able to handle it.

diﬀerent things related to the shelter, but I will not go
into a lot of detail here. But the biggest point is theUsually we donʼt handle them just by ourselves. The

traﬃc ﬂow and how this is going to work. If we get theowners come in and take care of their pets under our

trainee volunteers to go through this process, itʼs muchsupervision. But we all know how difficult owners canbetter when we give them a manual and review it. They

be in this stressful type of environment, so we doget the sense of it. They should not be just handed asometimes have to handle the animals as well. That is

manual and nothing else. We also have them go

why we mark them ‒ itʼs a way to try and keep the placethrough our regular two-hour volunteer training

safe.

session. In addition they have to do 12 hours of work at
the shelter with the dogs and cats, and other people,

There are basically eight stages for setting up thebefore they can work at an emergency shelter. However,system. Stage number one: Who activates or deploys

in an extreme situation, and a storm about to hit, we atyou? That cannot just be anybody. The order has toleast have some people that have some awareness. That

come through an identified person working for either

is something we are trying to build upon.

the Kauai Humane Society or the HAAWA partner in
Honolulu, or wherever. Next we make an opening

Then we have the check-in process and we promoteassessment. We go into and make a total assessment of

this. I donʼt know how it works in Japan, but forthe school or shelter where weʼre going to work. We

emergency sheltering all across the country in the US

have to document the condition the shelter is in as wewith the Red Cross, people have always been asked toﬁnd it. Then we set it up and start the check-in process.

bring their own bedding, and a ﬁve-day supply of water

Now everybody has arrived, hunkered down for theand food. Whatever it takes, youʼre supposed to be

stay. Eventually we will need to release everybody,

prepared.

before we do the clean up. Finally, we do the closing
assessment. It may seem simple but itʼs not. But it

In Hawaii, we do the same thing but we have now

seems to work and this is how the plan is designed.

added animals or pets. So people need to have disaster

Again, deployment is only started through official

kits prepared for their pets. Some people show up andmeans. It canʼt just be some volunteer or staﬀ person

they donʼt have a kit for their pet. Number one point

announcing that “weʼre opening up the shelter”. It wonʼ

we emphasize is that every pet has to have a mobile

t work that way. Opening assessment is where our staﬀ

home ‒ either a crate or cage in which they can live formembers go in and walk through. We document thea week. The home must be big enough for their animalroom conditions prior to setting up for the pets and weto turn around, sit or lie down. Thatʼs how we promote

talk to the school authority, shelter owner or whateverit. We actually sell them in our shelters and talk aboutbuilding it is. We talk to them about any potential

them at our dog classes. At every opportunity we talkproblems. Next we do the EPS set up (the shelter set

about disaster kits for pets and the need for each pet toup) and check our supplies. This is the part we actually

have a mobile home.

do once a month when we train our volunteers. We do

16

this the second Saturday of every month at our place by

So the evacuees arrive, all in line wanting to get into theadvertising and asking people to come in to do about 2

shelter. If they have a crate they can proceed directly. If½ hour training. It is very simple. We show them how

they donʼt have a crate, we check our supply. But if wethey are going to set up within a small space ‒ for dogs

donʼt have enough, that owner may have to keep theirand cats. We walk the volunteers through the basics

pet in the car. That is a last resort, but that is why weand make them practice. The key is to draw a map of

really pushing people to understand that they need towhat the shelter room should look like. This means thatget prepared for their pets.

Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes

The pet owner in the shelter is responsible for their own
petʼs care, taking it out for walks, cleaning the cage,
feeding it, watering it, and medicating it. We haveestablished speciﬁc hours in the shelter so that we only
have the dog people working with their dogs at one
time. Then we have the cat people, rabbit people, bird
people or others working at diﬀerent times.
That is what life in a shelter with pets is like. Everybodyʼs hunkered down for several days (or maybe less), which䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈䇽

depends on what kind of event it is. After it is over, youstart the check-out, which you must have control overat all times so that people donʼt take other peoples
animals or abandon their animal. There are several such
issues so we have a check-out process where we canverify ownership. That was a topic we were talking
about earlier in reference to your documents (andphotographs) used at the shelter you set up after theearthquake. Our whole goal is to try and keep families
together, and not have to re-house an abandoned
animal or animal that cannot return home. Of course wewill also serve that purpose if needed.

䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪉䇽Next is the cleanup which begins as quickly as theanimals begin to leave. Cleaning up is really key for thisto be successful, and finally the closing assessment.
These are vital key-points for us to continue our working
relationship with the government agencies now
obligated to accept pets into their schools or otherstate-owned buildings. There has been a lot of
resistance so weʼre working really closely with them todo this in a way that will not impact their building.
䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊䇽

Ultimately however, we would not be able to do any ofthis without volunteers. And I know, from the last time I
was here, because I met some wonderful volunteers,that it is the same in Japan. None of us have enoughstaﬀ to cover all the work that needs to be done for the
animals but we thankfully do have people who want to
help. Our volunteers need to be trained - something wehave to do it in a structured manner. But we always
want to thank the volunteers and recognize their eﬀorts
in helping us protect the whole family.
䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪋䇽Thank you very much.

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17䇼䉴䊤䉟䊄 㪌䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪐䇽䇼䉴䊤䉟䊄 㪍䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪇䇽䇼䉴䊤䉟䊄 㪎䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪈䇽䇼䉴䊤䉟䊄 㪏䇽18

Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪉䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪍䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪊䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪎䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪋䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪏䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪌䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪈㪐䇽Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes

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20

Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪉㪎䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊㪈䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪉㪏䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊㪉䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪉㪐䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊㪊䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊㪇䇽䇼㪪㫃㫀㪻㪼㩷㩷㩷㪊㪋䇽Workshop Ⅰ

Crisis Management When Disaster Strikes

21