The Long ViewThe Long View: The shoot horses, don't they?

We have all seen the touching pictures of abandoned dogs and other pets, perched precariously on roof tops and tree branches in flooded New Orleans. In fact, quite a few Gulf Coast residents refused to leave their homes unless their pets were rescued too. Now Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Representative Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) have sponsored the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act and attached it to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Under the Stafford Act, states must submit disaster plans in order to receive FEMA funding. When the two congressmen attached their save-the-pet amendment to Stafford, they were amazed to find out that the act did not mandate that states put plans in place for evacuating people in times of disaster, so the two also introduced a bill that would require evacuation plans for people the Planning for Evacuations of People in Life-Threatening Emergencies Act.

Keeping an eye on pets is not a trivial matter. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about one-third of the nation’s households have pets. During Katrina, an estimated 600,000 pets died or did not have shelter. The Humane Society rescued 8,200 abandoned pets during Hurricane Katrina, and about 1,500 have been reunited with their families.

Security experts say that taking care of pets would facilitate smoother evacuation of people from disaster areas, but critics charge that the amendments amount to yet another unfunded mandate on states. In addition, the amendment does not define what constitutes a pet: Would it be only cats and dogs? How about ferrets, fish, hamsters, and turtles? See Eileen Sullivan’s CQ report (sub. req.)