All creatures great and small: Improving disaster resilience through pets

HUMANS FORM strong attachments to their pets and other animals. So much so, that they are willing to risk their own lives to save those of animals. This is especially true during natural disasters (Heath, Voeks, and Glickman 2001; Heath et al. 2001). There are myriad examples where people have jumped into raging floodwaters to save their dog, cow, or horse from drowning, or refused to evacuate if it meant leaving their beloved cat behind. Because of this willingness to risk one’s life, disaster researchers tend to characterize pet and animal ownership as a risk factor for human survival. While this characterization is fair, we argue that animal ownership and animal activities could also provide successful avenues for disseminating natural hazard information and engaging people, especially the vulnerable, in strategies designed to increase disaster resilience.