Federico Jennifer L, Banks Ron E
Animal Services Division, Department of Environmental Services, Wake County Animal Center , Raleigh, NC, USA.
Division of Comparative Medicine, Department of Pathology, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center , Oklahoma.
J Appl Anim Welf Sci. 2020 Jul-Sep;23(3):253-264. doi: 10.1080/10888705.2019.1619179. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
The PETS Act amended the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to ensure state and local emergency preparedness operational plans included provisions for individuals with household pets and service animals following a major disaster or emergency. While the national newsworthy events are usually large scope disasters, there are also local events which do not meet the minimal conditions to qualify for state or federal level welfare support. Local governments should be prepared to house pets at evacuation shelters, regardless of the breadth of the event, and especially for local events that do not reach the level of state or federal disasters. Wake County, North Carolina developed a concept of prepared sustainment "PET PODs" equipped with inventory and operational instructions required to create and operate an animal evacuation shelter, which could be, or not be, closely associated with the human evacuation shelter. The Wake County Animal Center "PET PODs" provided supplies for animals which arrived with their owners at evacuation shelters during Hurricane Florence, which in addition to volunteer personnel and donated feed provisions, established the foundation for good animal welfare for dozens of animals.
《宠物法案》修订了《罗伯特·T·斯塔福德救灾及紧急援助法案》，以确保州和地方应急准备行动计划包含在重大灾难或紧急情况发生后为饲养宠物的个人和服务动物提供保障的条款。虽然全国性的有新闻价值的事件通常是大规模灾难，但也有一些地方事件不符合获得州或联邦层面福利支持的最低条件。地方政府应做好在避难所安置宠物的准备，无论事件规模大小，尤其是对于未达到州或联邦灾难级别的地方事件。北卡罗来纳州韦克县提出了“宠物舱”这一持续准备的概念，配备了创建和运营动物避难所所需的物资清单和操作说明，该避难所可能与人类避难所紧密相关，也可能没有关联。韦克县动物中心的“宠物舱”在飓风“佛罗伦萨”期间为与主人一同抵达避难所的动物提供了物资，除了志愿者和捐赠的饲料外，还为几十只动物的良好福利奠定了基础。
