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The Sandwich Enterprise: Did you know that the Cape’s Emergency Shelters Welcome Pets?

By AIMEE ROTHMAN, The Sandwich Enterprise

In the event of an emergency, the Sandwich Middle High Schools opens up to the public to offer shelter. Both people and pets are welcome.

Barnstable County currently operates six regional emergency shelters, which open up on an as-needed basis, and are dependent upon volunteers and both state and federal grants. Following Hurricane Katrina, a new law requiring shelters to allow the admittance of all pets—the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS Act)—to help encourage more people to come to the shelter.

Since then, local emergency shelters have continued to increase resources for pets at emergency shelters. To increase awareness about emergency shelters and emergency resources in the Town of Sandwich, the Center for Active Living (CAL) hosted an informational event on Monday, January 27.

At the CAL, Fire Chief John J. Burke spoke about emergency preparedness, along with Animal Control Officers Kristi Boufford and Walter Fagnant, and Barnstable County Emergency Preparedness Officer Chip Reilly, during an event called the “lunch and learn.”

The officer’s presentation focused not only on preparing a response plan for residents affected by emergencies, but on ways to include pets in the planning, too.

Mr. Reilly began the presentation by emphasizing that a main priority of emergency preparedness is to reduce anxiety surrounding emergencies. By planning for local emergencies ahead of time, Mr. Reilly said, “[the response can be] not so scary.”

More so, by taking steps to prepare ahead of the emergency event and making a plan to evacuate beforehand, first responders will not have as many residents in town to worry about keeping safe, he added. “If we can take some easy steps to be a little more prepared, then we do not depend on [first responders] as much and it frees them up to worry about these things.”

Read the full article at the Sandwich Enterprise >>>

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