↑ Grab this Headline Animator

New Book Says Save Your Pet Save Your Life

A Zogby International study found that 44 percent of those who stayed behind when Hurricane Katrina hit did so because they wouldn'st abandon their pets. Animal rescue and disaster preparedness for pets has become vital for saving human and animal lives. Allen and Linda Anderson, Minneapolis-based authors of the new book, RESCUED: Saving Animals from Disaster, with a foreword by US Senator John Ensign (New World Library, September, 2006, 360 pages, 16 pages color photos, index, resources, ISBN: 1577315448, $16.95), provide practical suggestions to pet owners for fast evacuation in the wake of any emergency. The authors and their publisher are donating a portion of the proceeds from RESCUED to animal rescue organizations.



A husband-and-wife writing team with a series of popular animal books, the authors drew upon Allen Anderson'ss eight years as an Atlanta police officer and his subsequent position as director of safety for an international nonprofit organization. The couple interviewed hundreds of animal rescuers and survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes to find the best methods for keeping pets safe in a disaster. Allen Anderson says, 's8220;Tragedy is compounded when people feel guilt and severe depression over loss of a companion or service animal. Laws and policies regarding the value of rescuing animals have not caught up with the reality that pets are family members in two out of three American households. People choose to stay in or return to dangerous situations rather than abandon their pets. It happened that way in Hurricane Katrina and again in Lebanon when people wouldn'st evacuate from a war zone due to the no-pets-allowed policies.



The Andersons hope with their book to keep a national conversation going on how to strengthen animal rescue and replace outdated, agrarian policies regarding animals with more effective lifesaving procedures. Among other vital pieces of information, the Andersons discuss and can demonstrate for audiences:



* The five crucial questions everyone with a pet must ask to assess if they are prepared for disaster.

* What essential elements are needed in a pet preparedness kit for an owner to evacuate safely and quickly in the event of a house fire, neighborhood chemical spill, terrorism threat, evacuation order, or natural disaster such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes.

* How to have a family emergency disaster plan that includes pets.

* What should be in a person'ss car or a safe deposit box that could save lives.

* What questions to ask of local, state, and national emergency planning committees, fire and police departments, and legislators to make sure people have support for pet evacuation and sheltering in disasters.

* What will get a person into a shelter or rescue vehicle and why they and their pet could be turned away.



In addition to motivating and educating the public about pet evacuation, RESCUED offers a history of animal rescue as an evolving social movement that is gaining in importance. It gives readers a comprehensive look at animal rescue as it occurs with 7,000 organizations and 10,000,000 members operating in communities across the country everyday. The book demonstrates how animal sheltering has evolved into state-of-the-art facilities, how animal control has grown from the catch-and-kill mentality to law enforcement capabilities that curb animal abuse, and how national animal organizations's missions affect the lives of people who don'st even have pets. This book has been called a must-read for every pet owner and anyone who has considered volunteering, making a career in, or training for animal rescue.



's8220;Believing that domesticated pets are family members and that by helping them one is also helping people, the Andersons detail what has been learned from Katrina and provide instructions for readers in the event that they face an evacuation. The authors stress that owners must take primary responsibility for their pets and that rescue volunteers should be properly trained their advice is well taken.'s8221;

--Publisher's8217;s Weekly review, 7-24-06



's8220;Compelling, fascinating, and most important -- highly moral.'s8221;

--Ben Stein, author, actor, commentator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

---

This article has been robotically scanned and tagged by Prnewsnow with the following search tags. No human manipulation of these tags take place.
| Hrmarketer | Hrmarketer Members | companies selling human |

---

4952 readers online...

, Local News