CBS4 Prompts Change In Keys Pet Evacuation Policy

Questions By CBS4 On Behalf Of Viewers Lead To New Pet Evacuation Polict For Major Evacuations

Viewers Wrote CBS4.com "We Won't Evacuate Without Our Pets"

County: "We've Been Working On This Issue For Several Years" Without Answers

KEY WEST (CBS4.com) ― A mandatory evacuation order means it's not safe to stay at home, but many pet owners refuse to leave without their furry friends. Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have addressed the problem with pet friendly shelters, but for major storms evacuation-prone Monroe county had some residents choosing between their pets or their lives, until questions from CBS4.com Sunday prompted by viewer e-mail led to an abrupt policy change in the heart of a mandatory evacuation.

CBS4.com user Jacque Setmayer said Sunday she won't leave her home in Big Pine Key, which should have been evacuated in the first round of Mandatory evacuations early Sunday morning.

"We cannot evacuate because I was just told we cannot take our pets to FIU," she told cbs4.com, referring to the official Keys residents shelter on the campus of Florida International University in west Miami-Dade. "I will not go without my cat."

Her concern was echoed by Jan Goes of Grassy Key, who was told when she contacted Monroe County about Evacuation that her pet would not be accepted.

"What are we supposed to do? I will not leave my dog," she said. "This is why so many people died in Katrina; they would not leave their animals."
CBS4 consumer investigator Al Sunshine said concerns about that following Hurricane Katrina led to congressional action intended to ease the concerns of pet owners forced to evacuate.

"The feds passed a law requiring 'FEMA to ensure all state and local emergency plans address the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals.', Sunshine said.

But while Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have provided at least some options for pet owners, Monroe County has offered nothing.

Keys spokesperson Becky Herrin said the solution is not easy. In an e-mail to CBS4, she said the problem starts with the fact in a mandatory evacuation, there are no shelters actually in the Keys, which is why residents must travel to the mainland and FIU,

"The Red Cross has a policy which will not allow pets in shelters. They run that shelter for us," she wrote. "We've asked FIU, the facility owner, to give us space for pets separate from the shelter area. They have refused as well."

Herrin said the efforts to find a solution are ongoing, but, "We've been working on this issue for several years now and have not been able to resolve it."

Monroe County ordered a mandatory evacuation for Ike because of the potential intensity of the storm, but for less serious threats the county has shelters at schools in different parts of the Keys. There, provisions are made for animals.

"We have an agreement with the Monroe County School Board to house pets at our shelters and they are cared for by the SPCA, and we have done that," Herrin wrote. However, the issue is much less important in lesser storms, which hardy Keys residents often choose to ride out at home. It's the storms too dangerous to stay for where no provision has been made for pets, forcing some residents to make a potentially deadly choice.

Herrin pointed out that residents can always make their own arrangements to stay with relatives or friends, to board their pets on the mainland, or to find a pet-friendly motel in the South Florida area.

The problem may be getting there. Because not everyone in the Keys has the ability to travel to the mainland, the county offers shuttle bus service to the shelter on the mainland. But, as Setmayer found, that shuttle is also pet-unfriendly.

"We are not allowed to take them on the evacuation buses either in Monroe County even with all the shots and crated!"

Contacting the Monroe County helpline produced the explanation that since the pets would not be accepted at the shelter, the county would not allow them to board a bus headed for that shelter.

But Sunday afternoon, Monroe County officials announced an abrupt solution to a problem they said they had been "working years to solve".
After CBS4 started asking questions about the lack of pet provisions, the county's Office of Emergency Management announced a major policy change.

Saying they had worked out an arrangement with the Miami-Dade office of Emergency Management, Monroe County announced it would now allow properly caged pets on county buses, where they would be taken to the shelter on the FIU campus.

"Residents with pets will be met at the shelter by a representative of a Miami based animal control representative," the county explained in a written statement. "They will take custody of the pet(s) and take care of them for the duration of the storm. The pets will be returned to FIU once the storm has passed, before residents return to the county."

The new policy removes a major roadblock for the evacuation of pet owners who are willing to give their pets into the care of county animal control officials.

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