Hurricane Katrina left tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of pets stranded as evacuation and shelter procedures routinely excluded animals. Nita Hemeter rescued her own dog and cat and stayed in the city amid power outages, recalling barking, meowing and seeing every star in the sky. Rescue teams in helicopters, boats and buses often prevented owners from bringing animals, and many shelters refused pets. Misleading messaging encouraged people to evacuate immediately and leave animals behind. The national outcry over animal suffering led Congress in 2006 to pass the PETS Act, incentivizing inclusion of pets in disaster planning and shifting how communities consider animals.
"I knew there were animals all over that needed help because you could hear them hollering," she said. "It was just awful."
"The messaging back then was: Just evacuate, leave your pets behind," said Randy Covey, an animal rescue manager, who spent weeks in New Orleans post-Katrina. "There was no accommodation made for pets in the evacuation."
"If there is a silver lining in Hurricane Katrina there's so many terrible things that happened it was that it changed how the country, to this day, considers the role of animals in our communities," said Ana Zorrilla, chief executive officer of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "To make sure that people are safe," Zorrilla said, "we have to
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