July 26, 2023 • 26 mins
When disaster strikes, it can feel hectic trying to ensure the safety of our loved ones. But often, in the rush and chaos, our pets can be overlooked. In our latest podcast episode, Dr. Lawrence Garcia, Clinical Assistant Professor in Shelter Medicine at the University of Florida, discusses the importance of including pets in our disaster plans. Dr. Garcia illuminates practical steps families can take to ensure their furry friends are safe during emergencies. So, if you're a pet owner wondering how to keep your pets safe during a disaster, this podcast episode is a must-listen. After all, they are part of our family too, and their safety should never be an afterthought.
Resources:
Fact Sheet: Hurricane Tips For Pet Owners
Video: Hurricane Preparedness For Pet Owners Featuring Dr. Larry Garcia
Florida Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) Webpage
UF Veterinary Emergency Treatment Service (VETS) Website
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ricky Telg (00:04):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:33):
Welcome to Science by the Slice. I'm
Phillip Stokes, EducationCoordinator with the PIE Center.
Have you ever received a holidaycard in the mail from your
friends or family that listseveryone in the family,
including their pets? Have youever sent a card where you add
your pets' names in thesignature? The cultural
(00:53):
definition of family in theUnited States is changing to
include our pets. In fact,according to a survey through
the American Veterinary MedicalAssociation, the majority of cat
and dog owners do consider theirpets as family members. When I
was growing up as a young childin the 90s I remember watching
the movie Homeward Bound (01:12):
The Incredible Journey. I watched it
many times we had the VHS. Themovie is about three pets, two
dogs and one cat, that becomesseparated from their family and
embarked together on atreacherous journey to find
their way back home through thewilderness. There's a scene at
the end of the movie where theyfinally arrive home. The
(01:33):
family's in the backyard, thepets emerge from the woods, and
to this day is quite aheartwarming scene.
Movie Clip from Homeward Bo (01:39):
Did you hear that? Hear what? It's a
dog.
Phillip Stokes (01:52):
First to emerge is a dog named Chance.
Movie Clip from Homeward B (01:54):
Here Chance, here Boy. I know that
bark. It is him. Jamie! Chance!
Phillip Stokes (02:08):
Then there Sassy the cat.
Movie Clip from Homeward (02:10):
Sassy! Home, home, home home, home. Oh,
my Baby. I though I'd never seeyou again.
Phillip Stokes (02:22):
And last to make it back, which was probably the
most moving scene of the filmwas Shadow, a golden retriever.
You didn't know if he wouldactually make it.
Movie Clip from Homeward (02:35):
Peter.
Shadow! Oh Peter, I worriedabout you so.
Phillip Stokes (02:47):
Just try to watch without tearing up a
little bit. And that's what ourpets are to us, family. And in
today's episode, we're talkingabout how to address the needs
of families with pets whenpreparing for and responding to
(03:08):
a major disaster or emergency.
During times of extreme weatherevents or other disasters, we
may prioritize the needs of ourimmediate family members without
taking into account those sameconsiderations for our pets.
Here in Florida hurricanes areone of the major natural hazards
we face, typically annually, andin our preparation, we secure
(03:28):
the necessities for ourfamilies, such as food and
medications. And we should dothe exact same for our pets.
Because after all, they arefamily. In this episode, I speak
with Dr. Lawrence Garcia,Clinical Assistant Professor in
Shelter Medicine at theUniversity of Florida and
Medical Director for theVeterinary Emergency Treatment
(03:50):
Service Team. Dr. Garcia and Idiscuss the importance of having
a comprehensive disaster planthat includes provisions for our
pets, so when disaster strikes,we are looking out for every
member of our family.
Well, Dr. Larry Garcia, thankyou so much for being a guest on
(04:10):
the PIE Center's podcast Scienceby the Slice to talk about pets
and dogs and cats and all ofwhat we need to take into
account when we're thinkingabout disasters. Of course in
Florida, we think abouthurricanes, but there are other
issues that we want to discusstoday as well. First, I want to
give you a chance to justintroduce yourself and tell us
(04:31):
who you are.
Larry Garcia (04:33):
Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Garcia, and I'm with the
University of Florida College ofVeterinary Medicine. I am the
Medical Director for ourVeterinary Emergency Treatment
Service Team, the VETS Team, andI kind of found my way to
disaster through sheltermedicine. I'm actually a general
practitioner by most of mypractice life and then kind of
(04:53):
found my way into animalsheltering and a municipal
animal shelter was then givensome emergency management
responsabilities and took someemergency management training.
And then as a result of that, inand amongst things, there was an
opportunity here at theUniversity of Florida to create
a shelter medicine clerkship atthe local animal shelter. And so
(05:13):
I took that position. And ofcourse, hearing about my
disaster background, theyrecruited me to the team. And so
I've been the medical directorfor about six years now. I've
been part of several exerciseswith counties and various
partners of the state. And thenI've led two deployments, one
following Hurricane Irma to KeyWest. And another one just
(05:36):
recently to Fort Myers followingHurricane Ian.
Phillip Stokes (05:39):
Yes, I do want to say I, I believe you recently
received an award for that righta recognition for your work in
Hurricane Ian, right.
Larry Garcia (05:46):
Just this past weekend at the Florida
Veterinary Medical Associationmeeting, I received a Gold Star
and a Hurricane Heroes Award.
Phillip Stokes (05:53):
Great, well, congratulations. And we know
that that is, you know,phenomenal work. And yeah, and I
think that kind of leads intojust addressing the entire topic
of pets and disasters. You know,a couple years back, I talked
with Craig Fugate, who's theformer FEMA Administrator up in
in D.C. And one of the thingsthat he mentioned is, and he
(06:16):
also worked with the Division ofEmergency Management in Florida
before that, that duringhurricanes and during disasters,
he saw time and time again,people would evacuate without
their pets. And I think you andI talking here it's a beautiful
day outside, we don't think thatwould necessarily happen. And I
don't think pet owners wouldnecessarily think of doing that.
(06:36):
But if you don't have a plan,right, if you don't think about
your pets, and then all of asudden something comes up,
you're maybe not going to beprepared and you panic, you make
decisions that might not be bestfor the pet. So what is just
kind of the general, if youcould just set the stage for
what happens during disasterevents? And how does that impact
(06:57):
pets?
Larry Garcia (06:58):
One of the first things to think about is we're
all terrible about having aplan. And like any disaster
plan, every family should haveone. And one of the things we
don't think about is on a dailybasis, there are explosions and
major disasters that wouldprevent you from communicating
with or getting back home toyour family. And so the first
(07:19):
part of any plan is any event,we don't have cell phone service
or something terrible happens.
Let's designate a meeting place.
Let's designate a communicationpoint. So if we can get to some
sort of access to communication,get that information to a
relative who's not in the area,something along those lines. So
that's like the first andforemost. And so when we
(07:41):
anticipate a disaster, which isyou know, even tornadoes, you
know, they're coming, there'ssome sort of prediction of
severe weather, things likethat. And so as part of that
sort of having a plan, a lot ofthat needs to include, if you
have pets, how am I going tomove them? What am I going to do
with them? Because you're right,what happens at the last minute,
(08:01):
there's panic, I have to move myfamily. And it looks like the
shelter I'm going to won't allowpets. Luckily, since Hurricane
Katrina, there's the PETS Act,which actually has helped. And
so what I would tell you isthroughout the state of Florida
and a lot of your southeasternstates, there are some sort of
plan in place for shelteringfamilies with their animals. It
(08:24):
used to be where we would have aseparate shelter for the animals
at the same property where likeAmerican Red Cross was tending
to the humans. Thanks to COVID,we've actually works more into a
co-location type situation, orcohabitation situation where you
actually care for your pets inyour little space, whatever
(08:45):
space they designate for you.
That is helping people moveanimals out. Now, another piece
of that is those who doevacuate. Most people would know
what their evacuation route is.
And kind of their plan is a lotof people have friends family
out of state, that may be wherethey go. So along that route,
find the pet friendly hotels. Sothese are the kinds of things
(09:05):
that people really need to bedoing and thinking about. And
then definitely if you haverefrigerated meds, another piece
of that puzzle. Nobody everthinks what if I have you know,
have a nice solid little cooler,that I can keep cold and keep
those refrigerated meds cold. Sothere's things like that, that
really help and it is reallyabout having a plan. Now for me,
(09:26):
I have like double duty becauseI have to plan for my home and
my family and then plan for myteam and then plan for the
deployment. So like I have to doextra double planning. And then
really during hurricane season,I carry a bag in my car. So if
at any time I've got to go, Ican go. And thankfully my wife
is used to that she kind of hasa plan. We have a generator. And
so there's things like that thatwe have in place so that she too
(09:49):
can be safe and secure while I'mgone. Of course I'm going to try
to get things secure before Ileave, but this is sort of the
thing. And a lot of familiesdon't think about that and like
when you travel there should becrates for your pets, there
should be food for your petswater for your pets. And people
say five to seven days usuallytakes about five to seven days
for some of the infrastructureto get back up where you can get
delivery of food and fresh waterand things like that, whether
(10:12):
it's because of infrastructure,like roads, or flooding or
things like that, so you want tobe kind of planning ahead. So
probably the biggest thing foranimals is really, really having
a plan for your pets that mayinvolve you or something along
those lines. But sadly, we dosee this a lot where people
leave an animal behind thinkingthat the animal is going to be
(10:33):
okay. And a tree falls through awindow or something like that.
And now the animal's escaped,and they get injured trying to
find the owner again. And so thebest bet is to try to plan
ahead, go to your countywebsites, go reach out to hotels
and things like that to figureout where the pet friendly
places are.
Phillip Stokes (10:52):
It sounds like there has been some
infrastructure development sinceyou said Katrina. Right? Where,
and you said it was called thepet act
Larry Garcia (11:01):
PETS Act. Okay.
P-E-T-S stands for it's anacronym. Okay. Basically PETS
act.
Phillip Stokes (11:07):
Okay. Yeah. But that's great. Because it's now
it makes it a little bit easierfor pet owners to be able to
evacuate with their pets. Yeah,it's i i think it's kind of the
responsibility of publicservices and local governments
to make those make it a littlebit easier, you know, for, for
those residents to be able tosustain some of the impacts of a
(11:31):
disaster. So that's, that'sreally great to hear. And so
yeah, making that plan ahead oftime, knowing where you can go
on your path if you do have toevacuate, and having some of
those things, just prepared likemedications. So what if you were
to if you did find yourself in asituation where you had to
evacuate, what would be kind ofa standard, and you've talked
(11:51):
about a couple of those things,but a standard like checklist of
things you want to bring withyou when thinking about your
pets.
Larry Garcia (11:57):
So yeah, extra medications if they're on any
medications, and that includesyour heartworm and flea
preventions flea tickpreventions. Any kind of
bedding, toys, treats,definitely at least you know, a
couple gallons of water,something along those lines to
make sure that they can havefresh water, bowls, leashes,
(12:20):
basically anything that your petcould possibly need. Because
there's the likelihood is you'renot going to be in a place that
has a yard, the likelihood isyou're going to need to walk
your pet. And it might even bedepending on the situation, if
you're having to weather thestorm, you might even need some
of those, as I call pee pads,those kind of absorptive pads
with you in case the pet has togo inside indoors. And then one
(12:42):
of the biggest things is medicalrecords. So like whether you
have it on a thumb drive or hardcopies, something like that,
because there's a chance you mayget displaced. And another
veterinarian might havequestions. And so to make sure
that everybody's on the samepage, having those medical
records with you are huge. Oneof the things that people
forget, is yes, the practicethat you use may be open, but
(13:06):
they likely don't have power,they likely don't have internet,
they likely don't have any wayto access medical records and
get those in a format thatsomebody else could use. So
having those with you is superhelpful. So that that way
wherever you go, if there'ssomething that needs to be
addressed, you can and reallylike having a list of all the
medications your pets are on,because the doctors may have
(13:28):
questions about that. And you'relike, well, it's just insulin,
well, there's several kinds ofinsulin, there's several kinds
of antibiotics. And so thosekinds of things are really,
really important. And what mostveterinary practices will do is
as they see an impending storm,if you're going to evacuate,
they will stock you up onmedications to make sure that
your pet is cared for, in thetime that you're absent.
Phillip Stokes (13:48):
Yeah, it really does sound like a lot of things
that we would do for ourselves,for our family, with medication
with making sure we have ourrecords and identification and
that kind of those those crucialitems. Yeah, we want to do that
for our pets too. And it justmakes everything much more easy
to kind of weather the storm orwhatever the disaster would be.
(14:12):
You didn't mention that.
Sometimes pets can get outduring a storm. So with maybe a
tree falling in the home, butjust like there's a lot going
on, you leave the door open,whatever, like pets get out. And
so that brings in the you know,we want to be able to find them
and identify them. So what aresome things you can do to
prepare for that?
Larry Garcia (14:32):
So there's there's many options. Microchipping is
huge. Some people don't feelcomfortable with microchipping
and so making sure there's somesort of collar or something like
that on the animal. Thechallenge is with collars is
number one, if they're not asafety release type collar, the
(14:53):
pet you get injured or caught onsomething, but at least it would
be identification. If it is asafety release type collar
obviously you could come I'moff. And so anything that you
can do to kind of label theanimals, something like they do
in some large animals, theyactually take a Sharpie and kind
of write phone numbers andthings like that on them. So
there's things like that thatwould be really important. And
what you're going to find isyour animal control agencies are
(15:15):
going to be responsible for, youknow, collecting the animals.
And like even, for instance,following Hurricane Ian, there
was probably a solid five daysearch and rescue effort before
they could really bring otherresources in, because now you
bring more resources, you havemore people and things that can
get in the way of the search andrescue mission. But even in
those cases, they have to have aplace to have those animals
(15:38):
evaluated and secured until theowner can be found. And so a lot
of shelters, what they actuallydo is there's many resources to
fly animals out of the area thatare adoptable animals that don't
have owners. And so a lot oftimes leading up to the storm,
they move animals out, HurricaneIan was a special case, because
(15:58):
they didn't know it was gonnahit there. Tampa shelters were
emptied. But nothing in FortMyers was whereas like in
hurricane Irma, all of the SouthFlorida shelters had emptied
out, they had several largeFedEx planes, the big cargo
planes were they loaded up fourto 400 animals or so and move
them out of state. And thenobviously, there's a mechanism
for health certificates andthings like that, and
(16:20):
organizations that are willingto receive those animals. So
there's a lot of great things inplace that used to not be in
place. So there's a lot more outthere for the animals, which is
great.
Phillip Stokes (16:29):
Yeah, that is wonderful. Yeah, you know,
there's just so much that goesinto this, you said, you know,
bringing animals out of thestate, you know, before a storm,
and these are animals that don'thave owners, right?
Larry Garcia (16:41):
Correct.
Phillip Stokes (16:41):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm just thinking of the
amount of resources that ittakes people, funds, etc, you
know, to do that, and it isgreat that there are people on
the ground willing to do that,and, you know, look out for for
all of the animals that are thatare in need of help during that
time. What about if you're outafter a storm, and you find an
(17:02):
animal, a stray animal, youdon't know if they have an owner
or not, and you're trying tofigure out how you can get them
back home.
Larry Garcia (17:10):
So there's various ways you can do that. Probably
the hardest part of it. One ofthe things that happened after
Hurricane Michael was there wassuch a loss of communication
infrastructure, that even if youfound an animal, you even if you
had the phone numbers, the cellphones weren't working,
(17:30):
landlines weren't working. Andso generally, what you want to
try to do is document or atleast have the information of
where you found the pet, kind ofwhat time you found the pet, a
picture of the pet, things likethat. So if you find an animal,
get some pictures, description,things like that. The next step
is to reach out to your animalcontrol agency, if you can't
(17:51):
reach them, they generally haverepresentatives at the emergency
management type center for thatcounty. And luckily, those type
facilities are set up to havelike phone lines and things like
that, and power. And so the bigthing now is to get that
information ahead of time. Sofind out your county emergency
(18:12):
management office contactinformation and keep that
somewhere where it's accessible.
And then when you find thatanimal, you call them, and then
they can get those resources outthere to help those animals.
Because there again, that couldbe somebody's pet. One of the
challenges that happened afterKatrina, that led to the pets
Act, is so many people stayedbehind because of their pets.
And then in the process, thepeople were rescued. But the
(18:33):
animals either had to staybehind or were taken into some
sort of animal rescueorganization. And then some
people were displaced for yearsout of state. And so eventually,
it becomes difficult toreconnect. And so that's why
there's been so much more of amovement to really focus on
reconnecting people in theirpets, so that they don't get
separated in that way. And a lotof that has really pushed to
(18:56):
sheltering cohabitation andthings like that.
Phillip Stokes (19:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like, in the
back of my mind, you think. Ithink it's human nature. Oh,
that's not going to happen.
That's not going to happen tome. It might happen to other
people. It might have happenedin the past, but it won't happen
to me. And hopefully, it won't.
And chances are, it probablywon't, but you can make sure
you, you can make sure itdoesn't happen to you by
planning in advance. And youmentioned that contacting your
(19:24):
county emergency managementoffice and having some of those
numbers ready. So like, ifyou're listening, if people are
listening, and they're saying,Okay, I do want to make a plan.
I do want to document some phonenumbers, what's a good place to
Larry Garcia (19:37):
So for starters, I mean, much like a family plan,
start to look?
you want to have your doctors,pets' doctors, all those kinds
of things, relatives, thingslike that. And then basically
most of your county websiteswould have all that information
for emergency management. Andthere are a lot of times
especially in Florida, you'regonna have these hurricane
(19:58):
pages. It's going to be a loteasier here in Florida because,
sadly, we are so prone todisaster. But in other places,
you know, there's various thingsthat are coming up around the
United States. And theseproblems are hard to address.
And so people that never dealwith a tornado may never think
about it. And then all of asudden, they hit with a tornado.
I mean, we lived in Huntsville,Alabama for a few years. And,
(20:21):
you know, suddenly, a tornado, astrip of tornadoes comes
through, and we now have nopower for five days. I'm like,
wait, this wasn't even ahurricane. That's not supposed
to happen. And so people maythink, well, it's never hit my
house yet, or, you know, even inthose areas that are prone to
disaster. Same thing in Florida,there's certain areas, they're
like, Oh, we never get hit, it'sfine. But it's not. And so
really going to the countywebsites, finding your county
(20:43):
emergency management office, andgetting that information. And
it's not just for people, it'sfor veterinarians, too, we find
that a lot of veterinariansdon't even know how to ask for
help, because the help startslocally. So if you're in a
facility, and you need help, youhave to reach out to the county
first the county reaches out tothe state, the state reaches out
to organizations and partnerslike myself, and then we come
(21:04):
down to respond. And that's howit worked in both Irma and Ian
the county said, We need help,we need a field hospital. And
we're like, we can do that. Andso the state says, Hey, go down,
create a field hospital in thislocation, this is what's needed.
And so that's how thosesituations work. So it's really
important to have those contextsask for the help.
Phillip Stokes (21:25):
Absolutely.
Yeah. Knowing knowing because itdoes vary by county varies by
state, by region. And so havingthat maybe just doing a quick
Google search, you know, andmaking sure that you're, you're
knowing where your disasterresponse organizations are. But
yeah, like you said, startingstarting simple starting with
your, your, your veterinarians,starting with your family
(21:48):
members, and kind of working inthat direction, as well. Well,
Dr. Garcia, is there are thereany other topics we didn't cover
today, as we've been talking?
Larry Garcia (21:58):
Oh, I would say that's probably the biggest part
of all this kind of planning.
And a lot of it is you know,having, you know, various, like,
you know, forms of communicationand kind of keeping up with your
family, friends and coworkers.
And so your house may be okay.
But somebody else may besuffering and having ways as
part of your plan to communicatewith those that you need to find
(22:19):
out about, and those who mightneed help. And, you know, I've
seen a lot of really goodformats for that, even, you
know, in the many calls that I'mon around disasters, and really
looking at how teams worktogether, I'm actually on the
IFAS leadership team calls. Andit's really interesting how,
like, following Hurricane Ian,they were able to account for
(22:41):
every single person by variousmodes, but they were able to
account for everybody and wherethey were and what they were
dealing with. And that's soimportant. Because like this is
the thing is, you know, we kindof are in our little bubble of
Oh, my house is destroyed, butthere may be people worse off,
or they may people missing thatwe need to go find. And so you
know, the biggest thing is justreally kind of having a plan,
(23:03):
and then going and workingthrough the proper channels like
we don't deploy unless we have amission request. And that's for
multiple reasons for the factthat we need to get reimbursed,
but also, so we're not goinginto an area and leaving it
where the state doesn't knowwhere we are. So we get
(23:23):
stranded, we have no cell phonecommunication, they don't know
where we are. So they alwaysknow where we are every step of
the way. And I think that's theother part of it for families is
making sure that everybody knowswhere you are, where you're
going what your plan is. So ifthere's a way they need to get
if they need to get in touchwith you, they know how to find
you.
Phillip Stokes (23:41):
Yeah, and this accountability of just the
resident, the homeowner, thecitizen. It is, we are an
interconnected network, we allimpact each other. And so taking
those precautions now helpspeople like yourself helps those
emergency responders because youwant to do as much as you can
beforehand. So you're not we'renot scrambling and doing things
(24:04):
in the early aftermath. Yeah.
Well, Dr. Garcia, thank you somuch. I do want to say that I
know that through the FloridaEDEN network, the Extension
Disaster Education Network, youhave recorded a video with a lot
of this similar information. Butin a different format and a
video format, we'll put that inthe show notes, we'll put some
(24:25):
other links that you might haveas well, that would be helpful
for making a plan so people canhave other formats and, and
websites and a checklist, so tospeak, to do some of these
things. And I just think it's areally important topic and
something that sometimes isoverlooked. You know, thinking
about our pets, we always knowthat you have to love them, feed
them, care for them, give themexercise, but we don't always
(24:47):
think of these specialcircumstances where you have to
do a little more, you know.
Larry Garcia (24:54):
Right no and it's so important and more and more
we're trying to get the word outon disaster. This was actually
at this Recent FloridaVeterinary Medical Association
meeting was the first time wehad a disaster lecture. And I
presented our sort ofexperiences from Hurricane Ian.
So that was great. So we'rehoping to keep that moving and
get more disaster education outthere.
Phillip Stokes (25:15):
Well, that's wonderful. And I just want to
say, it's a pleasure to talkwith you today. Dr. Garcia,
thank you so much for being withus today.
Larry Garcia (25:21):
You're welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Ricky Telg (25:25):
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This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
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Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:33):
Welcome to Science by the Slice. I'm
Phillip Stokes, EducationCoordinator with the PIE Center.
Have you ever received a holidaycard in the mail from your
friends or family that listseveryone in the family,
including their pets? Have youever sent a card where you add
your pets' names in thesignature? The cultural
(00:53):
definition of family in theUnited States is changing to
include our pets. In fact,according to a survey through
the American Veterinary MedicalAssociation, the majority of cat
and dog owners do consider theirpets as family members. When I
was growing up as a young childin the 90s I remember watching
the movie Homeward Bound (01:12):
The Incredible Journey. I watched it
many times we had the VHS. Themovie is about three pets, two
dogs and one cat, that becomesseparated from their family and
embarked together on atreacherous journey to find
their way back home through thewilderness. There's a scene at
the end of the movie where theyfinally arrive home. The
(01:33):
family's in the backyard, thepets emerge from the woods, and
to this day is quite aheartwarming scene.
Movie Clip from Homeward Bo (01:39):
Did you hear that? Hear what? It's a
dog.
Phillip Stokes (01:52):
First to emerge is a dog named Chance.
Movie Clip from Homeward B (01:54):
Here Chance, here Boy. I know that
bark. It is him. Jamie! Chance!
Phillip Stokes (02:08):
Then there Sassy the cat.
Movie Clip from Homeward (02:10):
Sassy! Home, home, home home, home. Oh,
my Baby. I though I'd never seeyou again.
Phillip Stokes (02:22):
And last to make it back, which was probably the
most moving scene of the filmwas Shadow, a golden retriever.
You didn't know if he wouldactually make it.
Movie Clip from Homeward (02:35):
Peter.
Shadow! Oh Peter, I worriedabout you so.
Phillip Stokes (02:47):
Just try to watch without tearing up a
little bit. And that's what ourpets are to us, family. And in
today's episode, we're talkingabout how to address the needs
of families with pets whenpreparing for and responding to
(03:08):
a major disaster or emergency.
During times of extreme weatherevents or other disasters, we
may prioritize the needs of ourimmediate family members without
taking into account those sameconsiderations for our pets.
Here in Florida hurricanes areone of the major natural hazards
we face, typically annually, andin our preparation, we secure
(03:28):
the necessities for ourfamilies, such as food and
medications. And we should dothe exact same for our pets.
Because after all, they arefamily. In this episode, I speak
with Dr. Lawrence Garcia,Clinical Assistant Professor in
Shelter Medicine at theUniversity of Florida and
Medical Director for theVeterinary Emergency Treatment
(03:50):
Service Team. Dr. Garcia and Idiscuss the importance of having
a comprehensive disaster planthat includes provisions for our
pets, so when disaster strikes,we are looking out for every
member of our family.
Well, Dr. Larry Garcia, thankyou so much for being a guest on
(04:10):
the PIE Center's podcast Scienceby the Slice to talk about pets
and dogs and cats and all ofwhat we need to take into
account when we're thinkingabout disasters. Of course in
Florida, we think abouthurricanes, but there are other
issues that we want to discusstoday as well. First, I want to
give you a chance to justintroduce yourself and tell us
(04:31):
who you are.
Larry Garcia (04:33):
Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Garcia, and I'm with the
University of Florida College ofVeterinary Medicine. I am the
Medical Director for ourVeterinary Emergency Treatment
Service Team, the VETS Team, andI kind of found my way to
disaster through sheltermedicine. I'm actually a general
practitioner by most of mypractice life and then kind of
(04:53):
found my way into animalsheltering and a municipal
animal shelter was then givensome emergency management
responsabilities and took someemergency management training.
And then as a result of that, inand amongst things, there was an
opportunity here at theUniversity of Florida to create
a shelter medicine clerkship atthe local animal shelter. And so
(05:13):
I took that position. And ofcourse, hearing about my
disaster background, theyrecruited me to the team. And so
I've been the medical directorfor about six years now. I've
been part of several exerciseswith counties and various
partners of the state. And thenI've led two deployments, one
following Hurricane Irma to KeyWest. And another one just
(05:36):
recently to Fort Myers followingHurricane Ian.
Phillip Stokes (05:39):
Yes, I do want to say I, I believe you recently
received an award for that righta recognition for your work in
Hurricane Ian, right.
Larry Garcia (05:46):
Just this past weekend at the Florida
Veterinary Medical Associationmeeting, I received a Gold Star
and a Hurricane Heroes Award.
Phillip Stokes (05:53):
Great, well, congratulations. And we know
that that is, you know,phenomenal work. And yeah, and I
think that kind of leads intojust addressing the entire topic
of pets and disasters. You know,a couple years back, I talked
with Craig Fugate, who's theformer FEMA Administrator up in
in D.C. And one of the thingsthat he mentioned is, and he
(06:16):
also worked with the Division ofEmergency Management in Florida
before that, that duringhurricanes and during disasters,
he saw time and time again,people would evacuate without
their pets. And I think you andI talking here it's a beautiful
day outside, we don't think thatwould necessarily happen. And I
don't think pet owners wouldnecessarily think of doing that.
(06:36):
But if you don't have a plan,right, if you don't think about
your pets, and then all of asudden something comes up,
you're maybe not going to beprepared and you panic, you make
decisions that might not be bestfor the pet. So what is just
kind of the general, if youcould just set the stage for
what happens during disasterevents? And how does that impact
(06:57):
pets?
Larry Garcia (06:58):
One of the first things to think about is we're
all terrible about having aplan. And like any disaster
plan, every family should haveone. And one of the things we
don't think about is on a dailybasis, there are explosions and
major disasters that wouldprevent you from communicating
with or getting back home toyour family. And so the first
(07:19):
part of any plan is any event,we don't have cell phone service
or something terrible happens.
Let's designate a meeting place.
Let's designate a communicationpoint. So if we can get to some
sort of access to communication,get that information to a
relative who's not in the area,something along those lines. So
that's like the first andforemost. And so when we
(07:41):
anticipate a disaster, which isyou know, even tornadoes, you
know, they're coming, there'ssome sort of prediction of
severe weather, things likethat. And so as part of that
sort of having a plan, a lot ofthat needs to include, if you
have pets, how am I going tomove them? What am I going to do
with them? Because you're right,what happens at the last minute,
(08:01):
there's panic, I have to move myfamily. And it looks like the
shelter I'm going to won't allowpets. Luckily, since Hurricane
Katrina, there's the PETS Act,which actually has helped. And
so what I would tell you isthroughout the state of Florida
and a lot of your southeasternstates, there are some sort of
plan in place for shelteringfamilies with their animals. It
(08:24):
used to be where we would have aseparate shelter for the animals
at the same property where likeAmerican Red Cross was tending
to the humans. Thanks to COVID,we've actually works more into a
co-location type situation, orcohabitation situation where you
actually care for your pets inyour little space, whatever
(08:45):
space they designate for you.
That is helping people moveanimals out. Now, another piece
of that is those who doevacuate. Most people would know
what their evacuation route is.
And kind of their plan is a lotof people have friends family
out of state, that may be wherethey go. So along that route,
find the pet friendly hotels. Sothese are the kinds of things
(09:05):
that people really need to bedoing and thinking about. And
then definitely if you haverefrigerated meds, another piece
of that puzzle. Nobody everthinks what if I have you know,
have a nice solid little cooler,that I can keep cold and keep
those refrigerated meds cold. Sothere's things like that, that
really help and it is reallyabout having a plan. Now for me,
(09:26):
I have like double duty becauseI have to plan for my home and
my family and then plan for myteam and then plan for the
deployment. So like I have to doextra double planning. And then
really during hurricane season,I carry a bag in my car. So if
at any time I've got to go, Ican go. And thankfully my wife
is used to that she kind of hasa plan. We have a generator. And
so there's things like that thatwe have in place so that she too
(09:49):
can be safe and secure while I'mgone. Of course I'm going to try
to get things secure before Ileave, but this is sort of the
thing. And a lot of familiesdon't think about that and like
when you travel there should becrates for your pets, there
should be food for your petswater for your pets. And people
say five to seven days usuallytakes about five to seven days
for some of the infrastructureto get back up where you can get
delivery of food and fresh waterand things like that, whether
(10:12):
it's because of infrastructure,like roads, or flooding or
things like that, so you want tobe kind of planning ahead. So
probably the biggest thing foranimals is really, really having
a plan for your pets that mayinvolve you or something along
those lines. But sadly, we dosee this a lot where people
leave an animal behind thinkingthat the animal is going to be
(10:33):
okay. And a tree falls through awindow or something like that.
And now the animal's escaped,and they get injured trying to
find the owner again. And so thebest bet is to try to plan
ahead, go to your countywebsites, go reach out to hotels
and things like that to figureout where the pet friendly
places are.
Phillip Stokes (10:52):
It sounds like there has been some
infrastructure development sinceyou said Katrina. Right? Where,
and you said it was called thepet act
Larry Garcia (11:01):
PETS Act. Okay.
P-E-T-S stands for it's anacronym. Okay. Basically PETS
act.
Phillip Stokes (11:07):
Okay. Yeah. But that's great. Because it's now
it makes it a little bit easierfor pet owners to be able to
evacuate with their pets. Yeah,it's i i think it's kind of the
responsibility of publicservices and local governments
to make those make it a littlebit easier, you know, for, for
those residents to be able tosustain some of the impacts of a
(11:31):
disaster. So that's, that'sreally great to hear. And so
yeah, making that plan ahead oftime, knowing where you can go
on your path if you do have toevacuate, and having some of
those things, just prepared likemedications. So what if you were
to if you did find yourself in asituation where you had to
evacuate, what would be kind ofa standard, and you've talked
(11:51):
about a couple of those things,but a standard like checklist of
things you want to bring withyou when thinking about your
pets.
Larry Garcia (11:57):
So yeah, extra medications if they're on any
medications, and that includesyour heartworm and flea
preventions flea tickpreventions. Any kind of
bedding, toys, treats,definitely at least you know, a
couple gallons of water,something along those lines to
make sure that they can havefresh water, bowls, leashes,
(12:20):
basically anything that your petcould possibly need. Because
there's the likelihood is you'renot going to be in a place that
has a yard, the likelihood isyou're going to need to walk
your pet. And it might even bedepending on the situation, if
you're having to weather thestorm, you might even need some
of those, as I call pee pads,those kind of absorptive pads
with you in case the pet has togo inside indoors. And then one
(12:42):
of the biggest things is medicalrecords. So like whether you
have it on a thumb drive or hardcopies, something like that,
because there's a chance you mayget displaced. And another
veterinarian might havequestions. And so to make sure
that everybody's on the samepage, having those medical
records with you are huge. Oneof the things that people
forget, is yes, the practicethat you use may be open, but
(13:06):
they likely don't have power,they likely don't have internet,
they likely don't have any wayto access medical records and
get those in a format thatsomebody else could use. So
having those with you is superhelpful. So that that way
wherever you go, if there'ssomething that needs to be
addressed, you can and reallylike having a list of all the
medications your pets are on,because the doctors may have
(13:28):
questions about that. And you'relike, well, it's just insulin,
well, there's several kinds ofinsulin, there's several kinds
of antibiotics. And so thosekinds of things are really,
really important. And what mostveterinary practices will do is
as they see an impending storm,if you're going to evacuate,
they will stock you up onmedications to make sure that
your pet is cared for, in thetime that you're absent.
Phillip Stokes (13:48):
Yeah, it really does sound like a lot of things
that we would do for ourselves,for our family, with medication
with making sure we have ourrecords and identification and
that kind of those those crucialitems. Yeah, we want to do that
for our pets too. And it justmakes everything much more easy
to kind of weather the storm orwhatever the disaster would be.
(14:12):
You didn't mention that.
Sometimes pets can get outduring a storm. So with maybe a
tree falling in the home, butjust like there's a lot going
on, you leave the door open,whatever, like pets get out. And
so that brings in the you know,we want to be able to find them
and identify them. So what aresome things you can do to
prepare for that?
Larry Garcia (14:32):
So there's there's many options. Microchipping is
huge. Some people don't feelcomfortable with microchipping
and so making sure there's somesort of collar or something like
that on the animal. Thechallenge is with collars is
number one, if they're not asafety release type collar, the
(14:53):
pet you get injured or caught onsomething, but at least it would
be identification. If it is asafety release type collar
obviously you could come I'moff. And so anything that you
can do to kind of label theanimals, something like they do
in some large animals, theyactually take a Sharpie and kind
of write phone numbers andthings like that on them. So
there's things like that thatwould be really important. And
what you're going to find isyour animal control agencies are
(15:15):
going to be responsible for, youknow, collecting the animals.
And like even, for instance,following Hurricane Ian, there
was probably a solid five daysearch and rescue effort before
they could really bring otherresources in, because now you
bring more resources, you havemore people and things that can
get in the way of the search andrescue mission. But even in
those cases, they have to have aplace to have those animals
(15:38):
evaluated and secured until theowner can be found. And so a lot
of shelters, what they actuallydo is there's many resources to
fly animals out of the area thatare adoptable animals that don't
have owners. And so a lot oftimes leading up to the storm,
they move animals out, HurricaneIan was a special case, because
(15:58):
they didn't know it was gonnahit there. Tampa shelters were
emptied. But nothing in FortMyers was whereas like in
hurricane Irma, all of the SouthFlorida shelters had emptied
out, they had several largeFedEx planes, the big cargo
planes were they loaded up fourto 400 animals or so and move
them out of state. And thenobviously, there's a mechanism
for health certificates andthings like that, and
(16:20):
organizations that are willingto receive those animals. So
there's a lot of great things inplace that used to not be in
place. So there's a lot more outthere for the animals, which is
great.
Phillip Stokes (16:29):
Yeah, that is wonderful. Yeah, you know,
there's just so much that goesinto this, you said, you know,
bringing animals out of thestate, you know, before a storm,
and these are animals that don'thave owners, right?
Larry Garcia (16:41):
Correct.
Phillip Stokes (16:41):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm just thinking of the
amount of resources that ittakes people, funds, etc, you
know, to do that, and it isgreat that there are people on
the ground willing to do that,and, you know, look out for for
all of the animals that are thatare in need of help during that
time. What about if you're outafter a storm, and you find an
(17:02):
animal, a stray animal, youdon't know if they have an owner
or not, and you're trying tofigure out how you can get them
back home.
Larry Garcia (17:10):
So there's various ways you can do that. Probably
the hardest part of it. One ofthe things that happened after
Hurricane Michael was there wassuch a loss of communication
infrastructure, that even if youfound an animal, you even if you
had the phone numbers, the cellphones weren't working,
(17:30):
landlines weren't working. Andso generally, what you want to
try to do is document or atleast have the information of
where you found the pet, kind ofwhat time you found the pet, a
picture of the pet, things likethat. So if you find an animal,
get some pictures, description,things like that. The next step
is to reach out to your animalcontrol agency, if you can't
(17:51):
reach them, they generally haverepresentatives at the emergency
management type center for thatcounty. And luckily, those type
facilities are set up to havelike phone lines and things like
that, and power. And so the bigthing now is to get that
information ahead of time. Sofind out your county emergency
(18:12):
management office contactinformation and keep that
somewhere where it's accessible.
And then when you find thatanimal, you call them, and then
they can get those resources outthere to help those animals.
Because there again, that couldbe somebody's pet. One of the
challenges that happened afterKatrina, that led to the pets
Act, is so many people stayedbehind because of their pets.
And then in the process, thepeople were rescued. But the
(18:33):
animals either had to staybehind or were taken into some
sort of animal rescueorganization. And then some
people were displaced for yearsout of state. And so eventually,
it becomes difficult toreconnect. And so that's why
there's been so much more of amovement to really focus on
reconnecting people in theirpets, so that they don't get
separated in that way. And a lotof that has really pushed to
(18:56):
sheltering cohabitation andthings like that.
Phillip Stokes (19:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like, in the
back of my mind, you think. Ithink it's human nature. Oh,
that's not going to happen.
That's not going to happen tome. It might happen to other
people. It might have happenedin the past, but it won't happen
to me. And hopefully, it won't.
And chances are, it probablywon't, but you can make sure
you, you can make sure itdoesn't happen to you by
planning in advance. And youmentioned that contacting your
(19:24):
county emergency managementoffice and having some of those
numbers ready. So like, ifyou're listening, if people are
listening, and they're saying,Okay, I do want to make a plan.
I do want to document some phonenumbers, what's a good place to
Larry Garcia (19:37):
So for starters, I mean, much like a family plan,
start to look?
you want to have your doctors,pets' doctors, all those kinds
of things, relatives, thingslike that. And then basically
most of your county websiteswould have all that information
for emergency management. Andthere are a lot of times
especially in Florida, you'regonna have these hurricane
(19:58):
pages. It's going to be a loteasier here in Florida because,
sadly, we are so prone todisaster. But in other places,
you know, there's various thingsthat are coming up around the
United States. And theseproblems are hard to address.
And so people that never dealwith a tornado may never think
about it. And then all of asudden, they hit with a tornado.
I mean, we lived in Huntsville,Alabama for a few years. And,
(20:21):
you know, suddenly, a tornado, astrip of tornadoes comes
through, and we now have nopower for five days. I'm like,
wait, this wasn't even ahurricane. That's not supposed
to happen. And so people maythink, well, it's never hit my
house yet, or, you know, even inthose areas that are prone to
disaster. Same thing in Florida,there's certain areas, they're
like, Oh, we never get hit, it'sfine. But it's not. And so
really going to the countywebsites, finding your county
(20:43):
emergency management office, andgetting that information. And
it's not just for people, it'sfor veterinarians, too, we find
that a lot of veterinariansdon't even know how to ask for
help, because the help startslocally. So if you're in a
facility, and you need help, youhave to reach out to the county
first the county reaches out tothe state, the state reaches out
to organizations and partnerslike myself, and then we come
(21:04):
down to respond. And that's howit worked in both Irma and Ian
the county said, We need help,we need a field hospital. And
we're like, we can do that. Andso the state says, Hey, go down,
create a field hospital in thislocation, this is what's needed.
And so that's how thosesituations work. So it's really
important to have those contextsask for the help.
Phillip Stokes (21:25):
Absolutely.
Yeah. Knowing knowing because itdoes vary by county varies by
state, by region. And so havingthat maybe just doing a quick
Google search, you know, andmaking sure that you're, you're
knowing where your disasterresponse organizations are. But
yeah, like you said, startingstarting simple starting with
your, your, your veterinarians,starting with your family
(21:48):
members, and kind of working inthat direction, as well. Well,
Dr. Garcia, is there are thereany other topics we didn't cover
today, as we've been talking?
Larry Garcia (21:58):
Oh, I would say that's probably the biggest part
of all this kind of planning.
And a lot of it is you know,having, you know, various, like,
you know, forms of communicationand kind of keeping up with your
family, friends and coworkers.
And so your house may be okay.
But somebody else may besuffering and having ways as
part of your plan to communicatewith those that you need to find
(22:19):
out about, and those who mightneed help. And, you know, I've
seen a lot of really goodformats for that, even, you
know, in the many calls that I'mon around disasters, and really
looking at how teams worktogether, I'm actually on the
IFAS leadership team calls. Andit's really interesting how,
like, following Hurricane Ian,they were able to account for
(22:41):
every single person by variousmodes, but they were able to
account for everybody and wherethey were and what they were
dealing with. And that's soimportant. Because like this is
the thing is, you know, we kindof are in our little bubble of
Oh, my house is destroyed, butthere may be people worse off,
or they may people missing thatwe need to go find. And so you
know, the biggest thing is justreally kind of having a plan,
(23:03):
and then going and workingthrough the proper channels like
we don't deploy unless we have amission request. And that's for
multiple reasons for the factthat we need to get reimbursed,
but also, so we're not goinginto an area and leaving it
where the state doesn't knowwhere we are. So we get
(23:23):
stranded, we have no cell phonecommunication, they don't know
where we are. So they alwaysknow where we are every step of
the way. And I think that's theother part of it for families is
making sure that everybody knowswhere you are, where you're
going what your plan is. So ifthere's a way they need to get
if they need to get in touchwith you, they know how to find
you.
Phillip Stokes (23:41):
Yeah, and this accountability of just the
resident, the homeowner, thecitizen. It is, we are an
interconnected network, we allimpact each other. And so taking
those precautions now helpspeople like yourself helps those
emergency responders because youwant to do as much as you can
beforehand. So you're not we'renot scrambling and doing things
(24:04):
in the early aftermath. Yeah.
Well, Dr. Garcia, thank you somuch. I do want to say that I
know that through the FloridaEDEN network, the Extension
Disaster Education Network, youhave recorded a video with a lot
of this similar information. Butin a different format and a
video format, we'll put that inthe show notes, we'll put some
(24:25):
other links that you might haveas well, that would be helpful
for making a plan so people canhave other formats and, and
websites and a checklist, so tospeak, to do some of these
things. And I just think it's areally important topic and
something that sometimes isoverlooked. You know, thinking
about our pets, we always knowthat you have to love them, feed
them, care for them, give themexercise, but we don't always
(24:47):
think of these specialcircumstances where you have to
do a little more, you know.
Larry Garcia (24:54):
Right no and it's so important and more and more
we're trying to get the word outon disaster. This was actually
at this Recent FloridaVeterinary Medical Association
meeting was the first time wehad a disaster lecture. And I
presented our sort ofexperiences from Hurricane Ian.
So that was great. So we'rehoping to keep that moving and
get more disaster education outthere.
Phillip Stokes (25:15):
Well, that's wonderful. And I just want to
say, it's a pleasure to talkwith you today. Dr. Garcia,
thank you so much for being withus today.
Larry Garcia (25:21):
You're welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Ricky Telg (25:25):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(25:48):
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
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