By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it HSO Contributor
Among the predictable list of grants handed out recently by the Department of Homeland Security and its state counterparts (money for Tasers and body armor in Kentucky, an email crime alert service in Southern California, police radio repeaters in central Virginia) is one that's not yet predictable or common enough:the board of supervisors in Delaware County, New York, in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, approved a grant last week that will pay for a trailer outfitted with equipment to care for domestic pets in emergency situations.
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Two years ago, President George Bush signed into law the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act to help ensure that pets and service animals aren't left behind in a disaster, as they were by the tens of thousands during Hurricane Katrina. The law requires the inclusion of companion animals in disaster planning at the state and local levels, and while some communities are finally getting on board with pet-friendly planning, others, to their credit, are hatching more progressive plans.
In Maryland, for example, Baltimore County recently outfitted an emergency shelter to simultaneously accommodate both people and their pets, which is a rarity. According to the Baltimore Sun, the shelter was retrofitted with a separate ventilation system so that both pets and those allergic to them could safely stay there together. Animals and humans are sheltered separately, but the two can meet up throughout the day to throw a ball around or go sniff a hydrant.
A coast-to-coast listing of pet-friendly shelters reveals that many counties still have no emergency facilities, while others have either makeshift facilities or shelters with limited access (come early or else try to hunt down a willing motel). Most emergency shelters that allow companion animals, such as the one in Marion County, Fla., keep them in separate areas until the all-clear is given, with no visitation rights allowed. And like most other shelters that welcome pets, this one has a policy barring exotics and livestock. After all, who wants their dogs or cats housed in a room with 10-foot Boa constrictors or Burmese Pythons? And what animal control officers want to be near a macaque monkey, whose scratch, bite, or saliva can inflict a victim with the potentially deadly herpes B virus?
Of course, the bigger question is this: why allow anyone to own a python or other constrictor snake in the first place? That's something Congress is finally asking, in large part because the Florida Everglades are being overrun with giant snakes that are creating a potential nightmare scenario for emergency personnel and anyone else daring to set foot or kayak in these famous wetlands.
This mess was hatched when snakes either escaped during hurricanes or were released into the wild by irresponsible pet owners, and lawmakers can start to clean it up by outlawing the ownership of these reptiles. Not surprisingly, the pet industry opposes any such legislation, claiming -- in its transparently self-serving way -- that a ban could push the trade underground and cause even more pet owners to release even more deadly snakes.
Maybe the pet industry would also like shelters to accommodate these giant snakes during emergencies. That's fine, as long as DHS doles out enough grant money to equip my neighbors and me with those new multi-shot Tasers and our dogs with strangle-proof body armor.
Alan Green was formerly editor of investigative projects at the Center for Public Integrity, in Washington, D.C. His books include Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species, which chronicles such issues as the threats to human health posed by the trade in pet primates.
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