The Regional Institute for Community Policing (RICP) will be facilitating the All Animals – All Disaster Workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 29, 2008. The goal of this one-day workshop is to promote the importance of animal planning as a practice for all emergency management personnel and community members and to increase the awareness of the important role they have in coordinating critical emergency responders, volunteers, community members, local and national non-governmental organizations safely and effectively during a disaster where animals are affected.

Participants are provided with a CD containing resources for either developing or updating their Emergency Evacuation and Sheltering Plan. Participants are also provided with an overview regarding national models of best practices and protocols that provides guidance for developing and ensuring coordination of standardized mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts of communities and individuals through their local Emergency Operations Plans affecting the health, welfare and safety of all animals in all disasters.

While most large-scale disasters gain national attention, the truth is most disasters are smaller and more localized. Large scale disasters impacting large numbers of animals are rare events in any given community and many large scale disasters impacting animals are unique in their scope and needs. Although many assets have been developed across the United States to respond to the needs of animals in disasters, the combination of rare events with unique requirements have made it impractical to prescribe a comprehensive list of specialized resources for the response to animals in disasters. It has proven to be more practical to educate the local citizenry on individual preparedness; assemble qualified local responders into teams and units that match the local needs, rather than depending on outside resources with more general concepts of operations. Any disaster will have adverse effects on the jurisdiction’s public health and welfare, including its animal population. Disaster preparation is most effective if locally focused and developed at the lowest jurisdiction possible.

However, assembling teams in the midst of a disaster has often led to turmoil over roles and responsibilities resulting in panic and confusion in the general population. It is clear that jurisdictions must have plans to effectively deal with their pet-owning populations as a matter of health and public safety and to expedite a community’s recovery. Effective response requires comprehensive planning which includes mitigation, through education community residents on their personal responsibility to prepare for evacuation, sheltering and care of household pets and service animals in times of disasters.

Successful disaster preparedness, mitigation and response depends on the cooperation, collaboration and creative leadership of all sectors; government, nonprofit and voluntary organizations as well as the business community which is now a policy directly supported by the National Response Framework.

This series of nationally-held workshops is supported by a grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Since December of 2006, the RICP has conducted the All Animals – All Disasters Workshop across the country training approximately 1,800 individuals.