Emergency planning for animals

Australians love their pets – and this influences how people behave during an emergency, with emergency services incorporating findings from research to influence their plans and policies during disasters.

Led by Dr Mel Taylor from Macquarie University, the Managing animals in disasters project has identified best practice approaches to animal emergency management. This has given emergency management agencies the data they needed to make better informed decisions on planning and targeting of resources. 

Working with the Blue Mountains Animal Ready Community, a range of emergency planning resources have been developed to highlight the importance of planning for animals during emergencies. The resources have been used by 23 New South Wales Rural Fire Service brigades across the Blue Mountains, as well as by the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre and the Mountains Community Resource Network. A community guide for establishing an animal ready community is now in development.

The team partnered with the Winmalee Public School, with a student art competition developed into a book to reinforce why animals matter and why they need to be included in emergency plans.

In Tasmania, animal populations have been mapped in partnership with the Tasmania Fire Service and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. This has informed evacuation planning, traffic management plans and capacity planning.

RSPCA Queensland has used the research to inform its polices, while in Victoria, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has used the findings to inform its risk assessment processes.

HorseSA has also used the research to support its emergency planning and gain funding for appropriate equipment, explains the organisation’s Executive Officer Julie Fielder.

“This research has provided evidence which we have used to advocate government around planning, and has helped us shape our messages to horse owners during emergencies,” she says.

Nationally, the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience has drawn on the research to develop a section on animal management in their updated evacuation planning handbook.

State animal emergency management plans at three primary industry departments – the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regions – have also been revised in consultation with the team.