We are putting a plan for relocationing our shelter animals in a disaster. When we pack them up to leave where do we take them? Any ideas on how to find a temorary shelter for our shelter animals. Is the best bet to contact local land owners?
Thanks,
Carrie

When we implimated our local shelter evacuation plan we found a equestrian center nearby that had several barns & stables with paddocks. This was ideal since it is already set up for animals, much like Lamar-Dixon was in Louisiana.

If you have to evacuate your shelter, it would be like setting up an emergency shelter. Below are some links that have useful info on that:

The LSU Emergency Animal Shelter Disaster Response Manual is an amazing document. You can download it in PDF, but it is meant as a “living document” to be added to and edited as needed, so always check the website for the most updated info.

It addresses the “planning, operational, and closing phases of an emergency animal shelter” based on the experiences of the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Emergency Animal Shelter during Katrina.

They talk about what went right, what went wrong, what they will do differently next time. It includes sections on finding the best location for setting up, dealing with security, finding supplies, dealing with the animals, their people, volunteers and more.

It might not all be applicable to you, but it will undoubtedly be helpful and bring up questions you might not have thought about.

http://www.lsuemergencyanimalshelter.org


DANR Guide to Disaster Preparedness (University of Agriculture, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Veterinary Medical Extension) has a
91-page PDF: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/DANR/DANRGuide2.pdf

Lots of useful info, including a checklist of local groups, businesses, agencies to ask about taking in animals -- or supplying the use of land and/or buildings -- in an emergency.

HSUS Disaster Planning for Animal Facilities is a 14-page PDF on the subject:

http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/res...ual_for_animals.html

Some animal shelters have Memorandum of Understandings with shelters in other states enabling the group in trouble to send their animals to the shelter that is safe. I don't have samples of those memorandums, but someone participating in these forums surely does.

I’ll go through my links during the week to see what else I have, but the three resources above are a good place to start.

Many shelters are setting up emergency disaster plans. If anybody here is involved in that planning, and the plans get posted to the internet, please share the URLs.

Hi Carrie,

I also have some HSUS materials to share with you from the Emergency Animal Sheltering course. Give me a couple of days to locate the CD, OK? In the meantime, KD gave you some great links to check out.

Susann Thiel
New York State Coordinator

Most shelters in my area have agreements to use the county and state fairgrounds. They also have mutual aid agreements with each other. A table-top exercise I participated in at one shelter (based on a scenario of damage to their building) included sending adoptable animals to other shelters for adoption if possible.

if you would like some copies of disaster plans to work from or some more help you can contact me directly at Kay@uan.org
kay