Animal emergency plan
Animal owners and carers have a duty to provide food, water, shelter, and necessary treatment, even in emergencies.
It is important to understand how to handle each type of natural disaster when preparing your animal emergency plan. You may need to adapt to different limitations during bushfires, storms, and floods, to keep your livestock and pets safe.
Risk assessment
Assess the likely level of risk for emergencies that could happen where your animals live. Consider the following circumstances in your plan.
Emergency trigger
Emergency trigger
What will trigger you to enact your plan – a forecast of extreme weather, an emergency warning, or something else?
- Make sure you can be alerted about emergencies and easily contacted, especially if you are not on your property.
- If you are not able to carry out the plan, prepare other people help your animals instead.
Animal locations
Animal locations
If you intend to evacuate your property and cannot take animals with you, where is the safest place to leave them?
- Make sure your animals are out of direct harm and can escape rising waters or uncontrolled bushfires. This may mean moving livestock to higher ground if there is a risk of lower areas becoming flooded, or opening gates so they can access other paddocks.
- Be prepared to move animals to an alternative property for higher chances of survival.
- Confine pets in a safe place depending on the emergency, preferably inside and under cover with access to plenty of water.
- Remove nearby flammable items from where animals might be kept. Take rugs and halters off horses as these can burn or melt during bushfires.
- Secure loose objects around confined animals that may become airborne during high winds and cause damage.
- Keep a map of where you are placing animals in case you can't return to your property – other people will need to locate them.
Emergency kit
Emergency kit
Which items will you need to pack in an emergency kit to support your animals?
- Purchase emergency fodder supplies and store them in a safe place, preferably under cover.
- Make sure pets have enough stocks of food, medication, and water to last throughout an emergency.
- If the power fails, ensure there is a back-up generator available for watering, feeding, milking, or ventilation of livestock.
Identification
Identification
Can you identify your animals if they are separated from you?
- Livestock and pets must be identifiable in case they become lost and displaced. This could include NLIS devices, microchips, brands, and name tags.
- Keep stock registers up to date and accessible so you can share information about animals that should be on your property.
Prepare for emergencies
Once you have set out your animal emergency plan, you can build it into your own survival plan. Follow these steps to make sure you are ready before a natural disaster occurs:
- Practice running your animal emergency plan so that you are familiar with the process. Be aware that animals will be stressed during an emergency and may be more difficult to control – always handle them carefully in dangerous situations.
- Discuss your plan with neighbours, friends, and family so they know how to help.
- Arrange insurance and identification for your animals. Keep necessary documentation in multiple locations so you can access it.
- Put together an emergency kit that can be easily relocated with your animals as needed.
- Find out which temporary accommodation or agistment options are available for your animals if your property becomes damaged or destroyed.
Safety priorities
When enacting your animal emergency plan, remember that safety of people is the priority.
Animal owners should ensure their own safety, as well as that of emergency responders and the community. Nobody is expected to risk their lives by entering a dangerous area to manage or relocate animals.
If animal owners leave animals on their property during an emergency, others need to respect that decision. Animals should not be removed, unless the owner has given permission to do so.
More information
The following resources can help you make an emergency plan for your pets, animals and livestock:
