Great news for the disabled community and pet owners! The House and Senate have both taken recent steps to ensure that no pet or service animal is left behind in a time of emergency. The House passed a bill in May and the Senate has just approved a substitute to the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) act before breaking for their August recess. In the future people will not have to make the choice between leaving their pet or service animal behind and evacuating a dangerous area. Hurray!
**Photo is of Austin an adorable survivor of Hurrican Katrina who is still waiting for someone to adopt him. Mr. M and I went to visit him in a shelter in Maine where he has ended up after being shipped from shelter to crowded shelter over the past year. He was a very sweet dog but a bit too muscular for Mumpy to handle. If you know of someone who would like to adopt him please click here.**
Well, it's not actually such good news, sadly.
On the surface, it's good news, yes. But this only serves to re-inforce in people's mind the link between a PET and a SERVICE ANIMAL. Service animals are not pets.
Considering the stories of service animals having been left forcibly behind during Hurricane Katrina, I hate to think what other nasties will happen as a result of "rescue workers" treating service animals as pets...
So, ok, they save all pets and send them to shelters. WIll they treat service animals that way, send the service animal to a shelter, hence separating it from its owner, distressing both, actually causing trauma that may mean the service animal won't be able to be used as such.
So, yes, a good idea, on the surface, but unless service animal owners in the US band together and make sure these issues are properly covered in the legislation, it would almost be better not to have the bill...
My 2 cents.
Posted by: Caughtya | August 10, 2006 at 02:47 AM