Kris­tel Marie Ram­nath

T&T is cur­rent­ly in the throes of a rainy sea­son marked by ex­ces­sive flood­ing. Once peace­ful, mild-man­nered rivers re­flect­ing the beau­ty of na­ture turn in­to rag­ing tor­rents with dead­ly in­tent ex­pos­ing the bru­tal­i­ty of na­ture. The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment is wide­ly broad­cast­ing safe­ty tips dur­ing this hur­ri­cane sea­son. In ad­di­tion to prepar­ing your­self in case of dis­as­ter, you need to plan ahead for your pet.

Here are some of the ways in which you can en­sure that your pets al­so sur­vive dis­as­ters. Be pre­pared for the dis­rup­tion of ser­vices such as elec­tric­i­ty, tele­phones, fresh wa­ter sup­plies and lo­cal food sources for ex­tend­ed pe­ri­ods of time.

Pre­pare a dis­as­ter plan with your vet­eri­nar­i­an, which in­cludes iden­ti­fy­ing your an­i­mals; as­sem­bling an an­i­mal evac­u­a­tion kit; and de­vel­op­ing an evac­u­a­tion plan for all of your an­i­mals. ID can be in the form of a col­lar tag, a mi­crochip or a wa­ter­proof pouch at­tached to your pet's col­lar. Rep­tiles can be marked with a per­ma­nent felt-tip mark­er and birds should have leg bands. It should pro­vide your name, ad­dress, con­tact num­ber and your vet­eri­nar­i­an's name, lo­ca­tion and con­tact.

An an­i­mal evac­u­a­tion kit should in­clude:

�2 Two-week sup­ply of food (dry & canned)

�2 Two-week sup­ply of wa­ter

�2 Bat­ter­ies

�2 Cage/car­ri­er (la­belled with your con­tact in­fo)

�2 Can open­er

�2 Copies of vet records and proof of own­er­ship

�2 Emer­gency con­tact

�2 Fa­mil­iar items to make pets feel com­fort­able (favourite toys, treats, blan­kets)

�2 First aid kit

�2 In­struc­tions for feed­ing in­clud­ing al­ler­gies.

�2 Med­ica­tions, in­clud­ing dose and fre­quen­cy.

�2 Leash or har­ness

�2 Lit­ter, lit­ter pan

�2 Muz­zles (dog or cat)

�2 News­pa­per (bed­ding, lit­ter)

�2 No-spill food and wa­ter dish­es

�2 Pa­per tow­els

�2 Ra­dio (bat­tery op­er­at­ed)

�2 Spoon (for canned food)

�2 Trash bags

It is im­por­tant to fa­mil­iarise your an­i­mals with evac­u­a­tion pro­ce­dures be­fore­hand. An evac­u­a­tion plan may take the fol­low­ing for­mat: Evac­u­ate your fam­i­ly as ear­ly as pos­si­ble if nec­es­sary. By leav­ing ear­ly, you will de­crease the chance of be­com­ing vic­tims of the dis­as­ter. Lo­cate and pre­arrange an evac­u­a­tion site out­side your im­me­di­ate area. Place all small pets, in­clud­ing cats and small dogs, in­side in­di­vid­ual trans­portable car­ri­ers. When stressed, an­i­mals that nor­mal­ly get along may be­come ag­gres­sive to­wards each oth­er.

If you're not at home

Pre-place stick­ers on front and back doors to no­ti­fy neigh­bours, fire fight­ers, po­lice, and oth­er res­cue per­son­nel that there are an­i­mals on your prop­er­ty and where to find your evac­u­a­tion sup­plies. Pro­vide a list near your evac­u­a­tion sup­plies of the num­ber, type, and lo­ca­tion of your an­i­mals, not­ing favourite hid­ing spots, to save time.