Pet Sheltering Exercise Scheduled Monday at Eastern Technical High

Towson, Md. (September 25, 2009) - Recent disasters have shown that many people will not evacuate from a potentially hazardous area if forced to leave pets behind. Next week, Baltimore County emergency responders will practice a plan for dealing with pets during a disaster.

An exercise focused on pet-friendly public shelters is scheduled the morning of Monday, September 28 at Eastern Technical High School, 1100 Mace Ave., 21221. Media are invited and should report to the exercise at 10:30 a.m.

The exercise involves the participation of local volunteers and their pets. It will ask the Division of Animal Control to practice processing evacuees’ pets during a simulated emergency.

The federal Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act of 2006 requires state and local governments to add provisions to their emergency plans to account for animal care issues, primarily planning for pet-friendly evacuation and sheltering.

Keeping Pet Owners Near Their Pets

The Department of Social Services oversees emergency shelter operations in Baltimore County. Pet-friendly shelters allow displaced residents to bring animals with them. Until now, the County has accommodated pets during shelter situations by transporting them to the County’s animal shelter in Baldwin for the duration of the emergency. Now, however, Baltimore County emergency managers are creating a system that allows pet owners to be near their pets.

A new "Emergency Animal Sheltering Support Unit," paid for by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, allows emergency managers to house pets at the shelter site. The unit consists of enclosed utility trailers equipped with animal crates and cages of various sizes, food and water bowls, muzzles, leashes, documentation equipment, safety equipment and other supplies.

Through the $80,600 grant, each Central Maryland jurisdiction received one of these trailers. This initiative enhances the Baltimore region's ability to offer mass care services to evacuated families and their pets and increases the likelihood that people will move out of harm’s way if circumstances require evacuation.