Disaster Plan For Your Pets?

Pets are a part of your family if you have them and in case of an emergency their safety is also your concern. Keeping them by your side during an emergency is probably the easiest way to keep them safe but when you have to make decisions fast and have to get your family to safety fast, you may not have the time to get your pets to safety. Having a plan however could ensure that all of you [your family and pets] get to safety.

If your pet might be a liability in survival situation should you "put the pet to sleep?"

 

Good point, you just reminded me of a documentary on Pompei where people left their pets behind and tied nonetheless, even though it was estimated that the people who lived in the outskirts had some time to at least untie these pets and bolt.
I think when a dog sees you run away scared they'd follow you anyway, they've been selectively bred for 50000 years to do just that. I don't know how a cat would respond, because if it were to burrow itself somewhere and the situation is the "run away instead of hiding" kind, the owners might have issue with transporting a scared cat. With caged animals you can just pick the cage and leave, however mind that if you're running on foot you won't have space to carry other vital things.

So basicaly what one needs is a plan to balance out pets vs nececities. Personally I have an emergency savvy dog and she get's the point when push come to shove.

If the pet is also usefull in hunting or guarding, it would be foolish to leave them behind.

I think emergency is when it becomes obvious if the pet is part of the family or just a cute "accessory" to have around.

 

I know there's situations where you're supposed to let your pets figure out stuff for themselves but in cases like house fires and other things I honestly don't think I could leave the house without knowing my pets were safe. I've got a cat dog and a lizard, the lizard I obviously would save first as he's in a vivarium. The cat I feel would be able to escape easily but dogs are just so vulnerable and when people say they'll "find a way to escape themselves" I feel like that's just a cop-out.

I'd never be able to live with myself knowing that I could've saved my animals and didn't. As for leaving pets behind in emergency survival situations I don't think I could do that either. They're life companions for a reason.

 

A dog will come along and a cat will probably stray away. If I have birds, I will immediately free them. But I haven't thought how to keep pet fishes from harm, there is not practical way to save them before or during a disaster, at least any I can think of. Reptiles like pet snakes could be easy enough to leave them be in the wilderness.

 

Honestly believing that reptiles will immediately go back to their "wild" ways is wrong. They're mildly tame like everything else and most of the time rely on other people for food. Once this supply stops they may hunt again but they'd never be as good as the 100% wild ones.

 

There really shouldn't even be a choice. Yes, that is a pet. And I know most people think they should be treated as such. But as the OP said, the pet is also family. So would you leave family behind? I don't think so. Most dogs are very protective, even the "cute" ones and leaving them behind shouldn't be an option that is considered. But even if their protective instincts don't kick in like you want, your dog can also be trained to help out with/when a disaster happens. Do what the police do-train them for survival. Wherever you go, your pet should go as well.

 

As awful as it may sound, I don't hold my pets to same level as my children.

My dog doesn't even go in the storm shelter with us. But, that's on her... she absolutely refuses. The one time we got her in it, she fought the whole way and got so upset inside the shelter she constantly howled and whimpered, pooped, peed and even threw up. She's on her own and we've already decided she won't be going with us in a bug out situation.

 

I have hasmters, currently I'm not sure how many because our two ''brothers'' just had babies. There is no way I would be able to keep our tiny friends with us and they wouldn't survive in the wild, at least not for very long. I'm not sure what I would do really, I don't think I could put them down so I would probably try and find an area outside where they might be able to fend for themselves and let them go.

 

This is a difficult thread because we treat our dogs as family. In fact, we hired 2 housemaids not because of the housework but mainly for the caring of our 3 dogs particularly when we are at work. My instructions to our housemaids is to make the dogs their priority. In case of fire, they have to secure the dogs and never mind the things in the house. They can ignore even the valuables as long as the dogs are safe. It is common here that when there is a fire, there are looters who steal the belongings of the fire victims. Even big appliances like refrigerator are stolen right in front of the helpless victims who are in trauma.

I can't imagine deciding euthanasia for my dogs when they are blocking the way for survival. Maybe I would rather die with them than sacrifice them. In one of my threads, I mentioned cannibalism where the plane crash survivors in the Andes were forced to eat human flesh of their dead companions. Now, if the time comes that my dog's meat can save us all from hunger, I don't think I would agree to that. I would defend my dogs with my life.