I could not just let the Bloggers Unit for Human Rights Day go by without comment. I know they said "human rights," not "cat rights." However, after some discourse with my human, I feel my subject does apply.
One cannot watch the news without being aware that Mother Nature is taking her wrath out quite a bit lately. She is angry and in her passive aggressive nature affects everyone. This leads me back to the history of Hurricane Katrina and the plight of the animals left behind. I am mainly speaking about those humans who were force, FORCED to leave our kind behind to fend for ourselves and make the best of it. Both my human and I were horrified by this. Can you imagine? It is awful.
From my point of view, it is a human right to love your animal family members. It is a human right to want to protect and care for them. To separate an animal from its human is not so different from having to consider leaving your child behind.
My human grandmother keeps saying that should another event like Katrina happen, the government will not force humans to leave their animals behind, and I hope that is true. We looked on the FEMA web site and noticed a few positive things. It is hard to tell what states allow us in emergency shelters, but they do offer a few ideas to help us through troubled times.
Here are three of their suggestions:
- Contact your local animal shelter, humane society, veterinarian or emergency management office for information on caring for pets in an emergency. Find out if there will be any shelters set-up to take pets in an emergency. Also, see if your veterinarian will accept your pet in an emergency.
- Make sure your pet has a properly fitted collar that includes current license and rabies tags. Consider having your pet identified through microchip technology. Your local veterinarian can assist you in finding a location that provides this service.
- Contact motels and hotels in communities outside of your area and find out if they will accept pets in an emergency.
But this reminds me of another time, a time when parents could not take care of their children during the depression. Children were sent away from their families sometimes. They went to orphanages or other relatives. How sad is that?
If humans have to leave us at shelters or vets, how is that so different? Will they really come back for us? What if they can't?
I expect, we here would opt for leaving the area and finding shelter together somewhere animal friendly.
But, maybe we should all begin to think about flexing human rights (to love and care for pets) to make sure there are sufficient shelters where humans and their animal companions can stay together?
Just a thought.
2 comments:
It is very important that, in an emergency, humans are allowed to keep their pets with them, or close by, somehow.
That is so sad. I remember watching all the poor animals abandoned when they were shown on the news. So many died or never found their families. Good post for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day.
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