By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block
Disasters and other emergencies can upend everyone’s lives—human and animal. That’s why we’re celebrating great progress for animals now that the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it will implement long-overdue requirements for contingency and disaster preparedness planning for animals in regulated breeding, exhibit and research facilities covered by the Animal Welfare Act.
The USDA’s rule, which was just released this week and will become effective on January 3, 2022, is the culmination of our decade-long campaign to extend the protections provided by the enactment of the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act in 2006. That groundbreaking measure created a federal mandate for animal-related disaster preparedness planning on the part of all agencies seeking federal disaster funds. But for those of us who worked for the PETS Act’s passage there was always a sense of unfinished business. The agency’s decision now to lift a stay on a December 2012 rule requiring such plans fulfills the promise we made more than a decade ago to provide similar consideration for animals in AWA-regulated institutions, and we could not be more pleased.
We’ve been pressing the case since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast states in 2005, exposing the practical and moral failure of disaster planning in the U.S. when it comes to animals. We have done so with a deep conviction that not only pets but all animals put in danger in instances of disaster and emergency should be considered in preparedness and response planning. We believe that, like our local, state and federal agencies focused on disaster response, regulated enterprises that keep animals have a fundamental public responsibility to develop and implement emergency preparedness plans. Among other obligations, such facilities must be able to continue to provide food, water, shelter, sanitation and appropriate veterinary care for animals during an emergency, especially if damage or other obstacles make it difficult for caretakers to reach or enter the facility.
Under the new rule, facilities such as puppy mills, roadside zoos and other operations that keep regulated animals will be asked to identify types of emergencies common in their areas and establish a clear reporting chain of command for employees, as well as take steps to train employees on strategies and procedures for animal care in such instances.
The USDA’s new rule will ensure regulated enterprises take the time and care to prioritize animal welfare in disaster and emergency situations, and we think it’s a reasonable demand to make upon entities that operate with the public’s trust. Required contingency planning simply makes sense, for reasons of public safety and effective recovery. But it is also true that when it comes to animals there must be shared responsibility for their welfare and safety. In that sense, the disaster rule is a decisive marker of our government’s commitment to inscribe public concern for animals in its laws and practices.
We are grateful to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and the legislators who helped bring us to this point, especially Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., and Representatives Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., for championing this cause.
Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.
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Here's our previous coverage on this issue:
Animals deserve disaster preparedness plans, too. Here’s how you can help.
The past few years have shown how suddenly natural disasters and other emergencies can upend our lives. Take, for instance, recent severe hurricanes and wildfires, the early 2021 deep freeze in Texas or the ongoing worldwide Covid-19 crisis. Families everywhere have seen how crucial it is to have disaster plans in place for their loved ones.
Animal lovers have always been aware that human beings aren’t the only ones in need of disaster preparedness plans, and in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, the rest of society caught on. Within a year of that disaster, Congress passed the PETS Act, mandating that state and local response agencies receiving federal funds institute emergency preparedness plans that take into account the needs of companion animals.
Unfortunately, more than fifteen years after Katrina, there is still no federal requirement for facilities regulated by the Animal Welfare Act to have such plans in place for the animals in their care. The increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related events due to climate change makes the need even more urgent. In the event of a disaster, anything might happen to animals at these facilities. When Hurricane Michael descended on Florida in October 2018, two big cats at ZooWorld died because of the storm. The year before, during Hurricane Irma, two greater kudu at another zoo died. When Hurricane Katrina hit a Gulf Coast aquarium, eight dolphins, 19 sea lions and a seal were left to weather the storm on their own. Six sea lions died, and the seal disappeared forever.
The animal care centers the HSUS runs have long had disaster plans in place—it’s just the responsible thing to do. We have been encouraging the U.S. Department of Agriculture for years to require that facilities regulated by the Animal Welfare Act have disaster plans, and today, the agency took a crucial step toward achieving that.
This comes after years of delay. In 2012, the USDA finalized regulations that required all facilities regulated by the Animal Welfare Act—such as research facilities, puppy and kitten mills and roadside zoos—to have emergency response plans by the end of July 2013 for the animals in their care in the event of a disaster situation. But just two days after facilities were supposed to have their plans in place, the agency abruptly decided to “stay” the rule, delaying its implementation indefinitely.
We never stopped pushing for this common-sense reform. We raised the issue over and over with USDA officials, while working closely with congressional allies on parallel tracks. We worked with the House Agriculture Committee to secure a provision in the 2014 Farm Bill encouraging the agency to reinstate the rule, but the agency disregarded the request. We strongly support the PREPARED (Providing Responsible Emergency Plans for Animals at Risk of Emerging Disasters) Act, led by Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Rodney Davis, R-Ill. And fortunately, thanks to the leadership of House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.—who responded to appeals by Rep. Titus and a bipartisan set of 207 Representatives and 41 Senators—the omnibus appropriations package signed into law in December 2020 set a timetable for the USDA to reexamine the effects of delaying its 2012 rule and consider implementing a disaster plan requirement for all entities regulated under the Animal Welfare Act. Today, the USDA followed that statutory directive by announcing a new proposed rule. This first step could result in requiring disaster plans for animals at these facilities with respect to both natural and manmade disaster situations. Now the public will need to take action to show their support for this rule.
With this proposal, the USDA demonstrates that it too understands what animal advocates have long known, that animal-related disaster readiness is good for everyone—animals, society and the regulated enterprises. We commend Secretary Vilsack for his willingness to move this rule forward, and it comes not a moment too soon. Any additional delay in this emergency planning requirement—as the threat of hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, tornadoes, pandemics and other disasters grows—puts animals in AWA-regulated facilities at further risk of injury, suffering and death. (Sadly, because farm animals are not covered under the Animal Welfare Act, animals owned by big agriculture, including the meat industry, will not be included in the rule. We must prioritize another pathway to help these deserving animals.)
Now we need your help to carry this promising progress for animals over the finish line. Promoting disaster preparedness for facilities that keep animals for commercial or scientific reasons is an appropriate role for the USDA as a regulatory agency, and we hope you’ll join us in urging the government to quickly lift the stay on this rule and put it back on track.
