Including Animals in Emergency Planning: Reflections from a National Symposium

On the afternoon of Friday, 25 April 2025, ICPEM convened a wide audience of practitioners, academics and policy makers to focus on a critical, yet frequently neglected, aspect of emergency planning: the role of animals during disasters.

Organised virtually, the event brought together leading figures from emergency services, veterinary science, and animal welfare organisations to explore an increasingly urgent question: How can we ensure that animals are effectively incorporated into resilience frameworks and emergency response plans?

Setting the Context: Why Animals Must Be a Central Consideration

Opening the symposium, Jim Green set a thought-provoking tone, asking, "Can we afford not to take animals into consideration?" His remarks challenged longstanding assumptions, emphasizing that in any disaster scenario, the presence of animals introduces complex emotional, operational, legal, and societal variables.

Throughout the session, panellists reinforced the undeniable truth that animals are integral to human communities. Heart-breaking examples — such as those from the Grenfell Tower fire, where residents refused to evacuate without their pets — demonstrated that failure to accommodate animals can not only place additional lives at risk but also severely hamper emergency response efforts.

Delegates discussed societal expectations around animal welfare, the psychological bonds between people and animals, and the legal responsibilities enshrined in legislation such as the UK Animal Welfare Act 2006. The clear consensus was that animal welfare is not ancillary to emergency planning — it is fundamental.

Assessing the Current Landscape: Gaps and Progress

In reflecting on the present state of emergency planning in the UK, Lindsay McDonald offered an insightful assessment. She noted that consideration for animals often remains dependent on the personal attitudes of individual responders rather than formalised, consistent policy. While some Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) have shown leadership, responses to animal welfare during emergencies remain, for the most part, reactive rather than proactive.

However, the panel agreed that awareness is increasing, albeit slowly, often prompted by high-profile incidents where animal welfare issues have become unavoidably visible.

James Sawyer expanded the discussion to an international perspective, highlighting how countries such as Costa Rica and India have incorporated animal welfare into their national disaster management frameworks. He also referenced the PETS Act in the United States, introduced following Hurricane Katrina, as a notable (though imperfect) example of legislative progress in this area.

Unique Challenges Within the UK Context

Professor Patrick Pollock provided a vital perspective on the unique challenges facing the UK, particularly in rural and remote areas. He described the stark reality that many animals in these areas have limited access to veterinary care even during normal conditions — a situation that only worsens during disasters. This underlying vulnerability, he noted, severely affects the UK's readiness to manage animal welfare in emergencies.

Furthermore, the UK’s prevailing emergency model — largely designed around animal disease control — was critiqued by multiple speakers. This approach, which treats animals primarily as vectors of disease rather than recognising their intrinsic social and emotional value to communities, was deemed no longer suitable for modern disaster management.

Towards a New Framework: One Health, One Welfare

One of the most powerful discussions of the symposium centred on the concept of One Health, One Welfare — a framework that recognises the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health.

Professor Pollock observed, “Unless you include animals in the response, more people get injured, more people get diseases, and more people die.”This ethos advocates that emergency planning must view humans and animals not as separate considerations, but as intimately connected parts of the same resilience system.

Despite the compelling logic of this model, the panel highlighted the lack of awareness of "One Health" principles within much of the UK medical and emergency response communities. Greater interdisciplinary education and collaboration were identified as crucial next steps.

Building National and Local Capacity: Opportunities and Needs

Throughout the symposium, discussion consistently returned to a pressing reality: the UK lacks a coherent national framework for integrating animals into emergency planning.

In its absence, local initiatives — such as Somerset’s proactive animal welfare network — have demonstrated what can be achieved through partnership and foresight.Yet, as Jim Green and Lindsay McDonald stressed, local successes cannot substitute for national coordination and strategic leadership.

The panel outlined several critical opportunities:

• Creation of community asset registers: cataloguing local resources such as livestock transporters, veterinary specialists, and temporary shelters.

• Embedding veterinary expertise within multi-agency emergency planning teams, ensuring animal welfare is considered from the outset.

• Developing standardised national protocols for animal evacuation, sheltering, and reunification with owners.

• Leveraging mutual aid agreements to share animal-related resources across regions during major incidents.

• Legislative reform to establish clear mandates and responsibilities for animal welfare during emergencies, unlocking essential funding and resourcing.

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Momentum for Change: A Call to Action

As the symposium concluded, there was a shared determination among participants: this must be the beginning of a longer dialogue and not a standalone conversation.

Speakers urged continued collaboration among emergency services, veterinary organisations, charities, local authorities, and central government. Building upon operational learning — both from UK experience and international best practice — will be critical to shaping a future where animals are no longer an afterthought, but an embedded consideration in all stages of emergency planning and response.

The atmosphere in the virtual symposium was highly collaborative, with delegates sharing examples of local initiatives, offering resources, and forming new connections. 

As one participant poignantly summarised, “What is not acceptable is to ignore the issue completely.” The message was unequivocal: the welfare of animals during emergencies is a societal responsibility — one that cannot wait any longer for strategic, coordinated action.