First, offering pet housing to the public may encourage more people to evacuate. The second way in which pet housing may improve public health is by increasing pet evacuation, and, therefore, reducing the likelihood of pet owners trying to later rescue their pets from the disaster site. Clearly the more pets that are evacuated the fewer pet owners attempt to rescue them. However, the common reasons why people do not evacuate their dogs or cats is related primarily to owners inability to catch and transport their pets, not where they can take their pets to. Therefore, help with evacuation logistics is likely to be the most effective strategy to prevent rescue attempts of pets.
Shelters are public facilities that are governed by local and state public health regulations.
Many shelters can provide this arrangement by keeping pets in the basement, a separate room, or in an outside building. Also consideration has to be given to avoid unnecessary exposure of persons with allergies or phobias against animals. In a small study that we conducted during a Red Cross exercise we asked participants what they thought about keeping pets at shelters. Most pets owners, especially those that had more than one pet were opposed to the idea. Although this may sound surprising at first, it actually makes sense that owners know best that their animals may be intractable to other persons and animals.