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By
The Associated Press
.
Published: Fri, May 23, 2008 - 8:32 am
Last Updated: Thu, July 31, 2008 - 1:27 am
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Officials making hurricane preparationsalong the Gulf Coast say they are trying to make sure pets and
other animals have shelter during a storm.
Officials at the Alabama/Mississippi hurricane conference said
they had organized networks of shelters and veterinarians, and that
they are more prepared than when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
The disaster taught them to expect thousands of storm evacuees with
pets - everything from gerbils to potbellied pigs - they refused to
abandon. Many evacuees then had no idea where to shelter their
pets.
In Alabama, officials are working on creating a network that
includes a "disaster veterinarian" in each of the state's 67
counties. Mississippi has planned to handle about 1,200 evacuated
animals of all sizes and can open agriculture centers with large
barns to shelter horses and cattle. Louisiana is testing
refrigerated trucks to haul animals.
Dr. Brigid Elchos, Mississippi's public health veterinarian,
says Hurricane Katrina, which devastated Louisiana, Mississippi and
parts of Alabama, killed countless animals and brought new state
and federal laws to protect them during a storm.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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You can be assured that unless a shelter will take myself, my son and my animals I will weather it out and I will be quite loud about my experience with the shelter.
How many pet owners (not people who leave pets outside to fend for themselves, they don’t care about those pets) I am talking about those people whose pets are their family. They will not leave their pets, nor will they allow them on some refrigeraged truck.
Oh Please.