Community Animal Emergency Planning Resources

Community planners, elected officials, organization leaders and businesses play essential roles in establishing overall emergency readiness. This page lists resources that may be helpful to community leadership who wish to establish or improve animal disaster plans.

uan's standard forms

United Animal Nations' temporary emergency animal sheltering forms are increasingly being used as the national standard in animal disaster forms. We have made these forms available to organizations and agencies who wish to use them for their own preparedness and response efforts. UAN has the following forms available:

• Cage card - Records routine, individual daily care of animals in the shelter; usually attached to an animal's cage or enclosure
• In-field tag - Completed by field rescue personnel and attached to animal/transport carrier in case animal and paperwork are separated during transport
• Intake - Tracks an animal's key identifying information while in care, such as owner contact info and origin of animal; triplicate form; kept in binder (or similar), not on animal cage/enclosure
• Lost animal - Documents animals reported missing by owners
• Notice (of animal taken from property) - This poster is used to notify a property owner that their animal(s) have been removed from the property and where they can find them.
• Request for rescue - Documents requests for animal rescue.

To request the forms for your agency's use, please  download our request form and have an officer with your agency/organization complete it. Agencies using the forms are tracked so they can be notified in the event that the forms are updated and to facilitate feedback about their effectiveness.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

UAN enters into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements with agencies, animal shelters and other types of organizations that may need UAN's assistance with a disaster or other emergency that results in a need for temporary emergency animal sheltering. Creating an MOU before the emergency occurs helps expedite assistance when it becomes needed. To inquire about an MOU with your agency or organization, please e-mail us.

organizations/agencies with resources or examples

The following external links are provided as a service to individuals and community leaders who are interested in improving community-level disaster plans. UAN posts these links as a service; we are not implying that the referrals and information below are what UAN considers to be best practices or will apply to every community's unique situation.

If you have a resource to recommend for this list, please e-mail us .

national animal rescue and sheltering coalition (narsc)

UAN is a founding member of NARSC, which is dedicated to improving collaboration and standards in animal emergency response. The following links are to other NARSC member Web sites that contain emergency planning resources.

• ASPCA - Guidelines and resources to help animal shelters prepare for disaster
• American Humane Association - Steps to create an animal shelter disaster plan

other resources

• FEMA's Emergency Management Institute - The Emergency Management Institute offers free online, self-paced classes that could be helpful for a community emergency planner, particularly IS-11 Animals in Disaster, Module B: Community Planning.
• American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)  - State-by-state list of agencies and resources for disaster planning; disaster planning for veterinarians
• The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) - Manual for emergency managers and animal facility managers
• Sebastian Heath - A well-known animal disaster planning researcher presents his guidelines for developing a local plan