Pet owner outreach and education
Large-scale emergencies and disasters are dangerous for both the animal owners and their animals especially when there’s a lack of preparation. A disaster leads to harm to both animals and people. A study shows that the main reason animal owners do not evacuate their homesteads when ordered to do so in a case of emergency is that they own pets and most of them are unsure whether it’s safe to evacuate with them. Pets are the only reason people attempt to return or return to their disaster-stricken homes before the area is safe to return. Surveys show that 80% of pet owners risk their lives to rescue their pets. This risks the safety and health of the individuals attempting to save their animals and the lives of the emergency teams who may be forced to enter the disaster zone to rescue people. The pet transport and evacuation act of (2006) make the pet evacuation act a rule of local and state government homeland funding. The Connecticut Act 7-11 expects that every region includes provisions of shelter for pets and an emergency operation plan. United States households in the American Veterinary Medical Association show that 60% of emergencies include those of pets. Therefore, the estimated number of pets per household is 1500 per 1000 people. This indicates that Connecticut is home to millions of pets and animals. The provision of shelter to large numbers of pets and animals owned by citizens that have evacuated would pose a big challenge to the emergency response team. A study indicates that only a fraction of those escaping a disaster-stricken area will seek public shelter and the number of animals and pets in need of shelter may be tangible. Past disasters such as Hurricane Katrina proved that people would go to extreme measures to avoid abandoning their pets and animals. The Connecticut State Animal Response Team program encourages all pet and animal owners to move with them to Evade putting both animal and human lives at risk.
Emergency animal response services help govern, promote, and plan all the Community Outreach events the whole year. It is particularly very busy from Mid March to October when it participates in different events monthly. All registered team members are expected to participate in these activities, only that they are not all about work without fun activities for people to enjoy themselves and learn too. The program also enables volunteers to educate themselves more on emergency animal response. This attracts more volunteers from various places to work hand in hand in animal care units. The Emergency Animal Response Service was established based on the efforts taken by special teams aiming at animals in disasters. This has been vital to the Connecticut State. The state witnessed devastating floods, snowfalls, storms, and hurricanes which calls for the need for animal response action. In case of large-scale disasters, the state emergency teams and rescue operations must focus on the needs and wants of the people, which can lead to animals being left in fatal and dangerous situations. The Emergency Animal Response team has specialized knowledge, expertise, resources, and training in emergency and animal response to provide a stable focus on animals during emergencies. Working hand in hand with Emergency managers (in partnership with T-Mobile), the EARS effectively takes control of relieving emergency services and animal rescue operations in case of a disaster. This focuses on community needs.