Ministry Booklet Teaches Pet Evacuation in Disasters

September 25, 2018

Tokyo- The Environment Ministry will provide prefectural and major city governments, probably in October, with a booklet showing pet owners how to evacuate in times of disasters.

The booklet gives municipalities tips on routine preparations for disasters and evacuation of people with pets. Before the distribution, the ministry has posted an outline of the booklet on its website.

Guidelines for municipalities on how to take care of pets in times of disasters have been drawn up, reflecting lessons from the powerful earthquakes that rocked Kumamoto Prefecture and its surrounding areas in southwestern Japan in April 2016. The ministry compiled the 23-page booklet in line with the guidelines.

To prepare for disasters, the booklet calls for the vaccination and parasite removal of pets, the exercise of pets to be caged and the preparation of emergency food for pets and pet owners.

It illustrates the smooth living in evacuation of a pet owner who has taken recommended measures, along with the difficulties faced by a separate pet owner who made no such preparations.

The booklet includes a flowchart showing a sequence of steps of evacuation with pets, ranging from preparation before a disaster to life as evacuees a week after the disaster.

It recommends that pet owners find evacuation centers that accept pets as some owners had problems with the operators of some shelters after taking their pets to the facilities.

In distributing the booklet, the ministry will call on municipalities to make its content widely known among pet owners, officials said. Jiji Press