Editorial

Emergency preparedness must include pets

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

It's heart-warming to see -- and write -- stories about first responders taking care of family pets once they know the people at the fire or accident are taken care of.

But, while the firefighters and paramedics do have soft hearts when it comes to cats and dogs, they know there's more to it than that.

Taking care of pets IS taking care of the people who love them. An injured person on the way to the hospital will better respond to care once he or she knows the animal members of the family are OK.

Gov. Dave Heineman and First Lady Sally Ganem helped make that point Monday when they appeared on the steps of the state capitol with Snickers, Nebraska's First Puppy, to urge residents to include pets in making plans for emergencies.

"For most of us, our pets are important members of our families," Gov. Heineman said. "They depend on us for their care and well-being. We owe it to them to make sure they are safe at all times, especially in an emergency."

Bryan Tuma, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, said there are five basic steps to being "pet-prepared" for emergencies. They are: make an emergency plan; find a buddy (to help your pet if you're not home); build a kit; practice your plan and update your plan and kit as needed.

"Our advice for pets is essentially the same as it is for humans," Tuma said. "The real key is to not wait until an emergency occurs to figure out what you are going to do. If anyone needs proof of that, all they have to do is think back to the disasters we've seen in Nebraska this year alone and how little warning most folks had."

Check out Snickers' First Puppy web page at www.governor.nebraska.gov/first puppy for daily "Pre-PAW-edness trading cards with various preparedness messages will be posted each day for the rest of the month, leading up to Fema's "America's PrepareAthon Day" Sept. 30.

While you're online, check out #SnickersSays on Gov. Heineman's Twitter account, https://twitter.com/ Gov_Heineman and his Facebook page, www.facebook.com/negovernor.

Of course, family preparedness is the priority and steps should be taken to assure that first. You can find more information on all these topics here www.nema.ne.gov

And, if' you'd like to take care of a pet that has found itself homeless, there are plenty available at the McCook Humane Society, www.mccookhumanesociety.com

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