Emergency Preparedness for Pets: Where Does the Dog Go When You Evacuate?

The whole of pet emergency preparedness comes down to one sentence from the Red Cross: if it is not safe for you to stay in your home, it is not safe for them either. Everything else is logistics for that sentence — because Ready.gov is equally blunt that many public shelters and hotels do not allow pets, so “where does the dog go?” has to be answered before the evacuation order, not after it.

This guide covers dogs and cats first, with a section on other animals. It follows Ready.gov’s three-part structure — make a plan, build a kit, stay informed — and the Red Cross and ASPCA guidance on evacuation and recovery (sources at the end). It is the pet chapter of our family emergency plan; if you have not built that yet, start there and add the pet lines as you go.

Why the plan is made before the day

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when large numbers of people refused to evacuate rather than leave animals behind, Congress passed the PETS Act (2006), which requires state and local emergency plans to account for household pets and service animals. That changed shelters; it did not change hotels, relatives with allergies, or the fact that a frightened cat hides. Ready.gov’s instruction is direct: if local officials ask you to evacuate, that means your pet should evacuate too. If you leave your pets behind, they may end up lost, injured or worse.

So the plan has four lines, and the first is the one most families have not written down:

1. Where the animals go. Ready.gov: know a safe place where you can take your pets before disasters and emergencies happen. A pet-friendly hotel on your evacuation route (call now and ask whether the no-pet policy is waived in a declared emergency, as the Red Cross suggests), a relative’s house outside the risk area, a boarding kennel or your vet. Write the addresses and numbers on the family contact card next to the meeting points.
2. Who takes them if you are not home. Ready.gov calls it the buddy system: a neighbour or friend who has a key, knows where the carrier and the kit are, and has agreed to evacuate the animals if you cannot get back. Reciprocate.
3. How they are identified. Microchip, with your phone number and an out-of-area emergency contact kept current at the registry; collar and tag on at all times; and, in the kit, a photo of you with the pet — Ready.gov and the Red Cross both ask for it because it documents ownership when a shelter has thirty similar-looking dogs.
4. What the Red Cross shelter will do. The Red Cross says its shelter workers will do what they can for household pets, but that pets may be housed in a different location by animal-welfare groups; service animals are always admitted. Plan for the separation rather than being surprised by it.

The kit: two of them

Ready.gov’s advice that most guides skip: have two kits, one larger kit if you are sheltering in place and one lightweight version for if you need to evacuate. The shelter-in-place kit is simply a deeper pantry; the go-kit is what fits in the car with the carrier.

Item	Go-kit (evacuation)	Stay-kit (shelter in place)
Food, airtight and waterproof	Several days	Two weeks, rotated
Water and a bowl	Several days	Two weeks — count the pet in the household total
Medication, in a waterproof container	Extra supply	Extra supply
Leash, collar, ID tag	Plus a backup set	—
Carrier or crate, one per animal	Yes, sturdy	Kept accessible
Records: registration, vaccinations, microchip number	Waterproof copies plus a phone copy	Same
Photo of you with the pet	Yes	Yes
First aid supplies	Ask your vet what fits your animal	Same
Sanitation: litter and tray, bags, paper towels, bleach	Minimal	Full
Feeding schedule, medical notes, vet’s number	One sheet, for whoever boards them	Same
Familiar items: toy, treats, bedding	One	—

The water line is the one to check against the family kit: a gallon per person per day is the human rule, and a large dog drinks a meaningful fraction of that. Add the animals to the household count when you size storage — the preparedness calculator sizes the human side; add the pets on top. Our 72-hour kit review covers the family kit the pet kit sits beside.

The carrier is the drill

Ready.gov’s travel tips are really a training programme: leave the carrier out and open where the animal spends time, feed treats near it and then inside it, put a familiar blanket in so it smells like home, and make note of where your pets hide, so you can easily find them in case you have to leave your house quickly. A cat that has never been in the carrier will not go in it on the night the smoke alarm sounds. The Red Cross adds the obvious step families skip: include the pets in your evacuation drills, so entering the carrier and riding in the car are boring rather than terrifying. Our guide on child-friendly drills makes the same point for children; run them together.

The sticker on the door

The ASPCA’s rescue alert sticker — the Red Cross recommends it too — goes on or near the front door and tells responders how many animals of which kind are inside and your vet’s number. If you evacuate with the animals and there is time, write EVACUATED across it so nobody risks a search for a dog that is already in your car. A hand-written note in a plastic sleeve does the same job.

If you shelter in place

Bring the animals indoors before the weather arrives and keep them under direct control: the Red Cross’s warning is that fences and gates get damaged and a frightened animal runs. Choose the same interior room you would use for the family, keep the carrier in it, and put the litter tray and water where you can reach them by flashlight. Our guides on long blackouts and wildfire evacuation cover the family side of both scenarios; during wildfire smoke, animals stay inside with the windows shut for the same reason you do.

Other animals

• Birds, reptiles, small mammals. The Red Cross refers these to the Humane Society and Ready.gov; the principle is the same — a secure travel enclosure, the species’ temperature needs (a heat pack or a cool pack in the kit), and food that does not need refrigeration.
• Horses and livestock. Ready.gov’s large-animal guidance: identification on every animal, primary and secondary evacuation routes that a trailer can use, a destination arranged in advance, and — the Red Cross’s word — a precautionary evacuation, early, because moving a trailer through an evacuation is slow and waiting can be fatal for the animals.

After: the first days back

The Red Cross’s recovery advice is short and worth taking literally: a pet’s behaviour may change dramatically after a disaster; keep dogs leashed and cats indoors because fences are down and scent markers are gone, so animals get lost from their own street; check the yard for debris, chemicals and displaced wildlife before letting them out; and give routine time to do its work, the same way it does for children. Anything beyond ordinary stress is a call to the vet.

The one-page version

• Address and number of the place the animals go, written on the family contact card.
• A neighbour with a key who has agreed to take them.
• Microchip registered, tag on, photo of you together in the kit.
• Two kits: a go-kit by the carrier, a stay-kit in the pantry, water counted for the animals.
• Carrier left open in the living room; one drill that includes the dog.
• Sticker on the door.