What pet owners need to know (2010)

Dated 5 March 2010.

Nancy Hassel wrote this piece for Examiner.com on 5 March 2010, after the Haiti and Chile earthquakes had made readers ask what they would do with a pet in a disaster.

It said Suffolk County had three dedicated pet-friendly emergency shelters at the time, set up after Katrina, and that Nassau County had none. It named the Pet Safe Coalition as a nonprofit working to educate owners and public officials.

It quoted the group's president saying shelter plans would take only a fraction of Nassau's pets, so owners must plan. Advice in the piece: put a collar and ID tag on every pet, keep a pet first aid kit in the car and house with a week of food, keep a spare leash and collar in the car, ask friends outside the danger zone about boarding, call hotels about pet policies, and have a carrier for each animal.

The shelter situation described is from 2010. Newspaper and magazine clippings belong to their publishers. This page summarizes the piece in our own words and links to the archived copy.