Finding pets after an earthquake - experience from Kobe

By Professor Peter Neville
(published with permission)
 

My heart goes out to you and all the folks working there to help the people and the animals affected by the earthquake. I did visit the city of Kobe a few years back after the big quake there and was amazed at how well co-ordinated the response was in building emergency cities and also facilities for pets. When it came for some people to move back into new city accommodation from the emergency housing, many refused if they couldn’t take their cats and dogs, and so the emergency cities became home for many years afterwards to quite large community of pet owners!

I think the thing to remember about animals is that they live in the here and now and so tend to make the best of whatever situation they find themselves in. Of course the older ones and some of the adults may be extremely traumatised and locked up immobile in fear of coming out from wherever they escaped to when the quake happened. The power of the feeling of relief of escape is that powerful...these are animals that will hopefully be found...they will also be the ones likely to suffer from post traumatic stress problems and need medication for some time to help them whether they are reunited with their owners or not. But the incidence of these is likely to be relatively low...perhaps the same as the number of genuinely phobic pets out there.

Most others will be frightened and confused but will come out, perhaps at night when the world is quieter, and stand a better chance of being picked up, especially after a day or two if they hungry. This will prompt them to overcome their fear. The problem for them then after the quake is finding food and water if they are used to being fed. On that basis, I’d suggest setting up feeding stations of dry cat food around badly hit sites just away from solid structures to encourage them out...especially cats. I know the rodent pest control people will kick up, (and maybe the odd diet nuts will tell you that cat food isn’t right for dogs..but hey, with hungry dogs, nutritional balance isn’t important, just nutrition...and water of course) but it’s worth it for a short while. Cats using the resources may need trapping even if they were pets. Dogs will need someone there watching...dogs may come to others, but photos will help you find owners who they should respond to at the site. The main problem for pets who have recovered from the big shocks is the after shocks which keep them hiding, hence the need to establish consistent feeding posts for a while.

Otherwise, as I remember from Kobe, the dogs all show up eventually if they can get out from the holes and tunnels..dark ‘dens’ of safety that they went to. They can usually be found somewhere near what is left of their old house because most, other than the flat faced toy breeds, have a good enough nose to re-locate the zone even if they ran away during the quake. Cats are more difficult as each will stay hidden in a dark secure place perhaps and rely on its own wits...they quickly revert to scavenging village cats (ie go feral) and if they can scratch a living, will sometimes lose any desire to approach people...hence the need for traps. But once you have them, they remember again about people and usually tame down again quickly (much like the difference between trapping wild born village cats and abandoned strays in the same population...they behave the same until you get close...then one stays fearful, the other relaxes).

So I guess that is my advice..based on only second hand experience from Kobe. Out in the quake hit areas, put up feeding stations and monitor them if you can at distance to get an idea of who is using them and whether you can entice them out more when they appear, especially if you can get the owners involved by taking the animals’ photos there and distributing them through your systems such as petsonthenet. If not, you should be still able to get the dogs that use the stations, but the cats may need trapping. It’s a dawn/dusk and maybe night-time job. See how quickly trapped animals settle down and whether they feed within a day, and whether they will accept being handled again. If not and they still look terrified, I would suggest the short term use of valium and for the longer term phobic animals the use of a TCA such as Clomicalm, though this will take a week or 10 days to reach effective serum levels. But don’t ever use Ace or Acetyl Promazine) ACP – yellow tablets here which vets often erroneously reach for during firework season. This will only make them look like they are calmer...on the inside they are still wide awake and terrified, they just can’t move.

All power to you and your team..I wish I had more experience to offer.

With very best wishes and lots of good vibes at least heading your way over the ether,

Peter Neville
Clinical Professor, Dept of Veterinary Medicine, University of Miyazaki, Japan
Adjunct Professor, Dept of Animal Sciences, The Ohio State University, USA
www.pneville.com    www.coape.org