How Do You Leave Them Behind

[Bullbreedlover]

While watching the news tonight they showed the evacuation of the town of Theodore in Qld. The residents gathered their pets up only to be told they had to leave them behind

The residents were flown out by helicopters.

It must be a devastating experience to leave your pets behind.

I hope I am never ever faced with doing this because I know I couldnt cope.

How do you keep them as safe as possible?

[parrotpea]

Poor things What a horrible situation to be in - that would just be absolutely devastating

Do you mean how would you keep them safe so that they might be alright while you were gone?

[Chezy]

I don't know if i could, they are m babies

[Asalei]

I was in tears watching that. My OH and I both said we'd never leave our dogs behind.

I got the impression those still there weren't leaving because they couldn't take their pets. So they gathered crates from Biloela and brought them in, so residents could put their dogs on the helicopter to evacuate.

[Bullbreedlover]

I was in tears watching that. My OH and I both said we'd never leave our dogs behind.

I got the impression those still there weren't leaving because they couldn't take their pets. So they gathered crates from Biloela and brought them in, so residents could put their dogs on the helicopter to evacuate.

I was of the impression(going by yesterdays news, and watching tonight) that the order to evacuate was compulsory and that pets were strictly not allowed on the helicopters.

They may be out of the town for about a week.

[Bullbreedlover]

Poor things What a horrible situation to be in - that would just be absolutely devastating

Do you mean how would you keep them safe so that they might be alright while you were gone?

Yes parrotpea.

If that situation ever arose how do you keep them safe?

[sas]

Not sure I could leave them behind.

It's just one of those things you don't know how you would handle until the time came.

[Teebs]

I dont think i could leave mine either, thinking of it makes me sick, but as sas said, you wont know till it happens to you and you have to do it.

[espinay2]

They would have to drag me away kicking and screaming. But then that is why we live on a hill and have a stockpile for emergencies.......no way you are moving me without the animals

[Stormy]

Doubt I could do it - makes me feel sick just thinking about it

[Guest Willow]

I was of the impression(going by yesterdays news, and watching tonight) that the order to evacuate was compulsory and that pets were strictly not allowed on the helicopters.

They may be out of the town for about a week.

I understand human life must come first etc etc, but the people who are not allowing the pest to be taken are basically condemning them to starve to death if they don't drown....surely they cannot do that under humane grounds?

[ninahartland]

I saw that on the news tonight too.....devastating!!!!!!!!!! There's no way that anyone would make me go anywhere and leave the dogs behind..........no way in hell!!!!!!

Does anyone know if any of the flood victims need any help with their pets till they get their homes back?

Is it PACERS that help with this kind of thing?

I could probably squeeze a couple in here if needed.

[koalathebear]

I understand human life must come first etc etc, but the people who are not allowing the pest to be taken are basically condemning them to starve to death if they don't drown....surely they cannot do that under humane grounds?

They may not have facilities to take pets given that for disaster situations, people are usually taken to school/town halls and the like. You can't really have dogs and humans all mixed in together in an indoor setting. Not all the animals may be house-trained and in any case, there's no telling how the animals will react to so many strangers in such a setting.

Even if they set up another section for animals - it could be hard to have cats and dogs together, even dogs together if some of them are timid/dog aggressive etc. Unless they had kennelling facilities with crates and separate cages etc it could be very tricky and in an emergency, the priority is the humans. I don't think you can blame rescue services for focussing on humans first even if it's a heart-wrenching situation to be faced with.

And for those who refuse to leave their animals behind, this might potentially be putting rescue workers/emergency personnel in jeopardy as they try to negotiate etc ... It's a really tough situation all round and I am not really sure what I could do. I might ask that we be evacuated with our dogs but say that we won't join the main group but perhaps they could drop us off somewhere else or something Logistically I'm not sure how that would work and I sincerely hope I'm never in that situation.

Edited December 29, 2010 by koalathebear

[rubiton]

BUt youd expect people with cats to have the carry cage things for them and expect people with dogs to have leads. And with all the stories that came out of the US where people went back by dodging official closures you'd think they would have learnt.

What about the Vic bushfires? obviously those who got out took their animals with them (unless they got away from the owners somehow) to the emergency centres - didnt seem to be too many problems there.

Edited December 29, 2010 by rubiton

[WreckitWhippet]

We live where there is no danger of flooding but if I ever had to leave them ( and it would probably be over my dead body ) then I would lock each dog in a seperate room of the house, with the biggest water container I can find and leave them with a full bag of dry each.

Some of mine are slow self feeders and would survive a week like that. It wouldn't be pretty to come back to but they'd probably survive

[Loving my Oldies]

They would have to drag me away kicking and screaming. But then that is why we live on a hill and have a stockpile for emergencies.......no way you are moving me without the animals

As I started reading this thread, espinay2, they were the exact words running through my head.

I understand human life must come first etc etc, but the people who are not allowing the pets to be taken are basically condemning them to starve to death if they don't drown....surely they cannot do that under humane grounds?

I agree. In other countries, people like IFAW, and private rescue organisations would be going in to rescue the animals, but here.... oh they're just animals, too bad.

"starve to death if they don't drown" and possibly worse if the animals are on medications to control medical conditions.

I just don't get it. No matter what sorts of arguments are put up by the authorities as per koalathebear's post.

[Staff'n'Toller]

BUt youd expect people with cats to have the carry cage things for them and expect people with dogs to have leads. And with all the stories that came out of the US where people went back by dodging official closures you'd think they would have learnt.

What about the Vic bushfires? obviously those who got out took their animals with them (unless they got away from the owners somehow) to the emergency centres - didnt seem to be too many problems there.

I think there was 3 or so days where all roads in were closed and people couldn't access their pets or horses. It just wasn't safe. I could be wrong but that's my recollection. Particularly if you were in the Kinglake area and you were on the hill, you stayed, if you'd left you could only go to containment lines until the wristband id system was up and running.

[koalathebear]

I just don't get it. No matter what sorts of arguments are put up by the authorities as per koalathebear's post.

I love my doggies, too - I'm just saying that I can understand the constraints of the emergency rescue scene and that during crunch time, the priority is to focus on humans. It's very easy to point out what should have been done when one isn't the person organising disaster relief.

Sometimes there isn't a whole lot of time to plan things out and the logistics are the nightmare during disasters. I was in China during the Sichuan earthquakes that killed at least 68,000. In Dujiangyan, a whole school collapsed with 900 students buried and 50 dead, kindergarten children were buried and killed, gutwrenching stories like this one emerged. The priority was to focus on finding humans that were still alive and getting them out... that being said, after the earthquake the tale of Strong Will Pig did prove very inspirational ...

Edited December 29, 2010 by koalathebear

[dancinbcs]

I would flatly refuse to leave without my dogs. Several people did this a few months ago during the floods in Vic. It does serve as a warning though to evacuate early and on your terms if you have pets in a natural disaster area. Don't wait to be forced out because the authorities don't care if your pets die or not.

What I don't get is why floods are treated differently to fires and cyclones. Pets are evacuated with their owners during these disasters but the emergency services seem to think it is ok to leave them to drown. After Cyclone Tracy dogs were even flown to southern states with their owners in the passenger area of the evacuation planes. This is why we ended up with heartworm in the south but at least they got the dogs out.

And WHERE THE HELL ARE THE RSPCA while all this is going on. Not one word from them about pushing the authorities to take the pets out or making accomodation arrangements for pets. This is the type of thing they should be doing, not harrassing dedicated breeders for minor rule breaches.

[Dogsfevr]

In many cases people have the option to leave early & many don't take that option & leave it till the last minute.

The reality is if the rescue people took animals over humans they would be sued & everyone would be bitching about human life comes first,dammed if you do dammed if you don't but we do need to take added care in being prepared when there is that option.

Here with bushfires we have our plan,we leave early,we have our safe spots where dogs can be safely housed if stinking hot .

The trailers are packed for such events with spare leads,bowls,water.fold up buckets etc etc.

When bad heatwaves hit the trailers are attached & ready to go & the dogs are in lock down just in case.

We make sure we do everything possible to help ourselves

This is a classic example of why having crate trained animals is a god send .

It would be the hardest decision to have to make & not one that i could say yes or no without weighing up the factors at that moment BUT i wouldn't take up rescue resources if human life was still at risk just for my animals because i couldn't live with someone dying just because i insisted the animals went over them.

Also reality is not many dogs are helicopter trained to sit safely & if i was to put my 4 big boys on that would equate to 3 adults weight wise