BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Hurricanes Beryl and Debby have already wreaked havoc this summer and we are just a few short weeks away from the peak of hurricane season.
As many of us have our emergency supplies and plans in place for our homes and our humans, there may not have been an exact plan in place for our pets, until now.
Many pet owners choose not to evacuate before a storm because they don’t know what shelters or hotels accept animals.
Then, tens of thousands of pets go missing during the destruction of tropical storms and hurricanes.
But now, a well-known non-profit agency has added pets to their disaster response plan – before, during and after – and all you have to do is register for free.
Hurricane Ian’s devastating power killed more than a hundred people in Florida, but we may never know how many people’s pets died, were injured, went missing or were never reunited with their families.
“We see so many situations where people are separated from their pets,” said Kimberly Bentley with the Global Empowerment Mission.
Now a popular humanitarian non-profit group has added animals and their needs to its emergency response.
“In the aftermath of a disaster, the Global Empowerment Mission supplies disaster relief all over but we have our Flew The Coop animal boxes that are specific to pets so that way you know if you’ve left the house suddenly, you have collars, food, puppy pads, toys,” said Bentley.
But that only helps after the disaster.
Flew the Coop and Fido Alert have joined forces to build a database of pets and their owners well before an emergency is upon us.
“The PDA, Pet Disaster Alert system, is a new way to become proactive instead of just reactive, so we will be doing both prongs of the approach in helping our pets, but we want to make sure not just having the resources after but also prior,” said Bentley.
Local 10′s Jacey Birch went straight to fidoalert.com and registered her three boys: Jagger, Radar and Peewee.
Within a few days, red tags came in the mail, for free.
In this process, basically your pet is getting a social security number and a microchip all rolled up into one, but this is specifically for hurricane season when sadly, so many pets go lost or missing. And that’s when you flip this over and the QR code comes into play.
“Someone can look at his tag, take a picture of the QR code and it goes to his registration profile, so they will see his photo, the contact information you have provided and can contact you,” said Bentley.
You can also fill out detailed information about your pet, including pictures.
During a disaster, a database is filled with important pet info and dogs and cats wearing red tags that can be scanned easily with any phone.
This aims to be a faster solution to get lost pets back home quickly.
Registered pet owners will also receive text alerts on their phone about impending storm details and safety tips along with information about which local shelters and hotels across Florida are pet friendly.
This is the very first storm season this system is up and running and so far it has only launched in Florida with about 40,000 pets signed up.
For more information, visit fidoalert.com/pda.