The hurricane left behind painful memories of damaged homes and property, personal items and other sentiments that were often irreplaceable. From the wild fires in California to the floodwaters of Eastern North Carolina, people have been forced to rebuild their lives, drawing from available emergency resources, putting the pieces of their shattered lives back together again. John Owens of Gastonia is a trained Emergency Animal Rescue Services volunteer. EARS is a program of the Sacramento, Calif.-based United Animal Nations. Owens said people generally forget about their pets in cases of emergency or extreme weather, because they re not initially included in any type of family evacuation plan, and when disaster strikes, it s typically too late to save your pets.
Most shelters don t accept pets, unless they re seeing-eye dogs.
The third annual Animal Disaster Preparedness Day will be Saturday. This nationwide event hopes to bring awareness to pet owners so their animals can be included in the family s evacuation plan in case of severe weather. According to Owens, there are approximately 5,000 trained volunteers nationwide. EARS volunteers provide animal rescue, transportation and sheltering, as well as distribution of food and pet care supplies. Volunteers are also trained to provide grooming, coordination of medical care and spaying or neutering with owner s permission.