Top 5 Tips for Household Pet Emergency Preparedness

Top 5 Tips for Household Pet Emergency Preparedness

For those of us that are pet lovers and wouldn’t leave home without Sparky there are certain tips we recommend for dealing with pet emergency preparations. Feel free to add your thoughts and suggestions below.

1. Get a FREE Pet Rescue Alert Sticker. The ASPCA offers a sticker that alerts people that pets are inside your home or in the general premise. Make sure it is placed in an area where rescue workers could see it. There is space to include the types and number of pets and the name and contact info of your animal’s veterinarian. If you are able to evacuate your pets write “EVACUATED” across the sticker.

2. Arrange a Safe Place Post-Rescue

You might need to find a place for your pet to stay, you can do this by contacting your local veterinarians for a list of boarding kennels and facilities. See if your local animal shelter provides emergency shelter or foster care for pets. You can also identify hotels outside of your immediate area that accept pets so you have an action plan. Maybe you have a friend or relative outside of the area that would be willing to take in your pet in case of an emergency.

3. Emergency Grab N Go Kits

While we don’t sell animal emergency products at The Ready Store there are some components of our kits that could be beneficial to helping your household pet. For the other items you are going to need to collect them on your own (not aware of a company that sells animal emergency kits). Anyways this is the list from the ASPCA along with some of our suggestions:

- Pet first-aid kit and guide book (ask your vet what to include)
- 3-7 days’ worth of canned (pop-top) or dry food (be sure to rotate every two months)
- Disposable litter trays (aluminum roasting pans are perfect)
- Litter or paper toweling
- Liquid dish soap and disinfectant
- Disposable garbage bags for clean-up
- Pet feeding dishes
- Extra harness and leash (Note: harnesses are recommended for safety and security)
- Photocopies of medical records and a waterproof container with a two-week supply of any medicine your pet requires (Remember some medications need to be rotated otherwise they may go bad or become useless.)
- Water, at least 7 days’ worth for each person and pet
- A traveling bag, crate or sturdy carrier, ideally one for each pet
- Blanket
- Recent photos of your pets (in case you are separated and need to make “Lost” posters)
- Especially for cats: Pillowcase or EvackSack, toys, scoopable litter
- Especially for dogs: Long leash and yard stake, toys and chew toys, a week’s worth of cage liner.

4. Make Sure Tags are Current and In Place

Make sure identification is on the per, namely: name, telephone number, and any urgent medical needs. Be sure to write your pet’s name, your name and contact information on your pet’s carrier as well. Microchipping is also a nice option as well for tracking purposes.

5. Make and Evacuation Plan

You should already have one for you and your family, if not check out our ReadySteps resource, but you should also think about how your pet fits into the overall plan. Have items near your other grab-n-go kits so you can save time and get out as quickly as possible. Most importantly think through the “what ifs” and be prepared for the different scenarios that might come your way given your location’s unique geographic and climate considerations.

FROM: http://www.thereadystore.com/emergency-preparedness-basics/1752/top-5-tips-for-household-pet-emergency-preparedness/?utm_source=rne_ep101_20110214--customer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ep101&utm_content=click_here

Why is the Government Stockpilin​g Survival Food?

It really is a small world ... especially in the preparedness and survival industries. With a community that prides itself on staying informed, you can't really keep things secret for long. So it's no surprise that we were among the first to get wind of some very unsettling news. In fact, it was so disturbing that we felt it was only right to share with you what we've learned.

One of the nation's largest suppliers of dehydrated food has cut loose 99% of their dealers and distributors. And it's not because of the poor economy. It's because this particular industry leader can no longer supply their regular distribution channels. Why not? Because they're using every bit of manufacturing capacity they have to fulfill massive new government contracts. Look, the government has always been a customer of the industry to some extent. But according to our sources, this latest development doesn't represent simply a change of vendor on the government's part. It's a whole new magnitude of business.

And that's not all.

Apparently, even though they've cut off their regular consumer markets, the industry leader I've just mentioned still can't produce enough survival food to meet the government's vast requirements. How do we know? Earlier this month, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) put out a Request for Proposal, or RFP, for even more dehydrated food. The RFP called for a 10-day supply of meals - for 14 million people. That's 420 million meals. Typically, FEMA maintains a stockpile of about 6 million meals. Why the sudden need to increase the stockpile by 420 million more? (And that's in addition to whatever our aforementioned industry leader is supplying.) It almost seems like they're trying to stock a modern day "Noah's Ark," doesn't it?

By the way, just days after the RFP went online, it suddenly went "poof" ... vanished. Could it be that some high level official suddenly realized he was letting the cat out of the bag? That people aren't stupid, and would recognize the implications of 420 million emergency meals? Has the government removed the RFP from the public process and approached potential suppliers privately instead? We may never know.

But here's what we do know. This kind of spending by a minor government agency in this economy just doesn't make sense ... unless there are extraordinary circumstances behind it, circumstances we aren't privy to. Because Congress has failed to pass a budget, the government is now operating under what's called a continuing resolution. The practical effect of this continuing resolution is that the government stays in business, but all extras are curtailed. Agencies spend far less on travel and training expenses, for instance. And they certainly don't start stockpiling supplies.

In this economic climate, you would expect FEMA also to be minimizing expenses. But clearly, they're not. If you do the math, the approximate tab for 420 million meals comes to about a billion dollars.

What is so urgent that FEMA is spending a billion dollars on survival food?

Could officials be worried about extensive power grid damage from solar flares? (A big one hit last week and took out communications in China.) Are they worried about riots and demonstrations causing gridlock in communities? (The demonstrations in Wisconsin and Ohio have been peaceful so far ... but look what happened in Egypt.) Are they worried about terrorist attacks? (Some reports say that there's been more "chatter" lately on terrorist communication networks.)

But here's the most important question. No matter what it is - are you ready for it?

Are the cans of soup and the extra jar of peanut butter in your pantry going to be enough? How long will it last you? Because let's face it, in a true emergency, forget about finding what you need at the store. You know what it's like when there's even a moderate snowstorm in the forecast - no bottled water, no toilet paper, no bread to be found anywhere. The shelves are stripped bare in hours. Most people simply don't realize how fragile the food distribution system is in this country. In order to squeeze out every penny of profits, most stores now use just-in-time inventory systems, which leave no margin for error. Any kind of natural or manmade catastrophe would cut supply lines to the stores and leave millions of people with no way of getting food. And it could be anything. Power outages. Riots. A terrorist attack. Flooding. Blizzards. Hurricanes.

If you've never gotten around to buying an emergency food supply,now is the time.
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