Emergency Planning

Back-Up Plans & Emergency Contacts

We always need to be prepared to take care of our animals, especially during emergencies such as fire, earthquake, flood, power failure, or other local dangers. You also need to be prepared in case your pets have to be evacuated.

At Bat Country Pet Sitting, we will do all we can to provide our best care and service for your pets and property. However, there are some situations in which we might only be able to provide partial services and others where we won’t be able to reach your property or home at all.

Back-Up Plans

In the event of the following:

• Your sitter is hospitalized and/or seriously incapacitated (car accident, etc) and there is no backup sitter available
• A local emergency or severe weather event prevents us from reaching your home in the short or long-term, or
• We are actively evacuating our own homes

a BatCo representative will reach out to you and your local emergency contact and arrange for them to take over care of your pets.

Please ensure that when you travel, your primary emergency contact is available to help during the dates you’ll be gone, and has keys or another reliable method of entering your home.

Your identification of a minimum of one emergency contact will be requested prior to the start of services. BatCo will attempt to reach your contact via phone/voicemail, email and text.

We are not responsible for your pets or home if you have not provided an appropriate contact list, if your emergency contact:

• Doesn’t return BatCo’s calls/texts/emails, and/or
• Cannot safely reach/enter your home due to disaster, local weather emergency, closed roads, etc.

We suggest that you set up the following contacts:

1. One for emergency help.

For example, if care cannot be provided due to a debilitating injury or accident (car accident, hospitalization, death) involving the scheduled sitter during the time of service, your emergency contact person will be contacted immediately by a BatCo representative and asked to take over care of your pets.

Your emergency contact should ideally be a trusted and locally available family member, neighbor, or friend who has:

• Keys or other guaranteed entry to your home
• Your written authority to speak for you and act in your place, and
• Availability on short notice while you’re away

2. One for disaster help.

This should be someone who can provide feeding, care and/or transportation for your pets and animals before, during, or after a severe weather event (hurricane, flooding, tornado etc), earthquake, fire, evacuation, major power outage or similar disaster or emergency.

Your disaster emergency contact should ideally live well out of your geographic risk area and in some cases, might be an out-of-state contact. This is crucial, because if your disaster emergency contact lives nearby, and is affected by the same ice or snowstorm, power grid failure, or flood, they may not be unable to provide appropriate or timely care.

Your emergency contact should be far enough away to be outside of the emergency zone, but close enough to reach your home in enough time to feed, medicate, or move your pets (if evacuation or emergency care is needed).

Do they know that they’re your emergency contact?

Please ensure that your contact knows that they are your emergency contact. You should have their input when creating your family disaster plan, and they should have reliable methods of entry and access to your home and property.

It is also recommended that they are experienced in using horse/stock trailers, animal crates, tack, leads, and anything else your particular pets/animals require for emergency care, movement, housing, etc. Your small pets’ crates, food, and gear should fit in their primary mode of transport, as well.

Preparation & Training

Practice your plans with your contact. It’ll save time and grief in an actual emergency. It won’t help anyone if your Great Dane won’t fit in their electric mini car!

This is a lot to do on your end, and a lot to ask of your contact/s. In the best-case scenario, however, they’ll be acting as YOUR back-up emergency contact, also, and you’ll both then be in a position to care for each other’s animals and property in a serious emergency.

Remember – these are family members, not just ‘pets’ or ‘animals’. We are their guardians, and they rely on us for care, love, and good health.

First Aid & Preparedness

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the various first aid and emergency care methods that your pets and home might require. Then, put together a basic human AND pet first aid kit (even a small kit is better than none) and your disaster preparedness plan.

Taking steps now to learn and prepare can save lives!

Get Red Cross Pet First Aid Certified online today!

Severe Weather Emergencies

A severe weather event includes blizzards and snowstorms, roads and cars covered in thick ice, earthquakes, rainstorms and floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and power outages or grid failure.

You can trust us to use best judgment in caring for your pets and home if we are caring for your pets during an emergency weather event.

However, it’s up to you to provide the final planning for your pet’s care, and this includes:

• Creating, practicing and appropriately sharing your disaster plan
• Ensuring that you have at least one trusted contact who will act in your place to provide the home care plan or the rescue/evacuation plan your pets or animals need to survive
• Knowing what kinds of emergencies might happen in your immediate area and informing your pet sitters and back-up care givers of any information that can help them provide appropriate service, such as:
  • Are you living in an area that floods regularly in heavy storms?
  • Are you near areas that can burn quickly?
  • Does your neighborhood lose power easily in a storm?

The care we provide to our clients’ pets and their safety is our first concern.

The emergency plan for clients is as follows:

• Every effort will be made to reach your home
• The service schedule may be changed, interrupted, or altered due to weather/road conditions
• If it is not possible to reach or enter your home safely, your emergency contact will be notified
• You will be notified immediately that your contingency plan has been activated

Power Outages & Keys

Please remember that some garage door openers, door number pads, etc might not be operational in the event of a power outage, dead batteries, or failure of the home’s backup electricity system.

If you choose not to allow your BatCo representative to keep keys to a primary entry door on file or contact info for a nearby contact with reliable access to your home, BatCo will provide service:

• As soon as possible when power has been restored to your area
• When conditions allow us to reach your home safely, and/or
• There is no longer an evacuation situation

Vaccinations & Microchips

We ask that all dogs and cats under our care are current with their rabies and core vaccinations as required by state and local laws.

*This requirement might be waived, depending on the pet’s living circumstances, age, titer levels, etc.

If your pet escapes or becomes lost during a disaster or emergency, they are at risk of coming into contact with domestic and wild animals that can carry rabies and other diseases.

Microchipping your dogs and cats can make the difference between being reunited with your pet if he’s lost and never seeing your beloved pet again. Getting your pets microchipped is a very inexpensive and easy procedure.

Evacuation

If your pets need to be evacuated or boarded with little to no notice, being able to provide proof of rabies vaccination can make life a lot easier. If an evacuation shelter or other community area requires rabies vaccinations, or if the vaccination status of your pet comes into question, you’ll be protected.

Valuable Resources

Learn How to Prevent Pet-Related Fires in Your Home

First Aid Tips & Emergency Resources for Pet Owners

How to Customize & Build Home & Go Kits – Multnomah Co Office of Emergency Management

Community Preparedness – Hazard information, readiness training, presentations, publications and other resources for Multnomah County, OR

The American Veterinary Medical Association Saving the Whole Family© brochure offers a comprehensive list of what needs to be done to safeguard your pets before, during and after a disaster.

University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine: Family Disaster Plan Should Include Pets

American Red Cross: Pets and Disaster: Be Prepared