Earlier in the news, you saw residents getting their houses and their families ready for when Tropical Storm Lisa makes landfall as a hurricane. But what about their pets? A lot of times, pet owners are not sure what to do with their dogs and cats during a hurricane, or maybe they think the pet will be fine on its own in the yard.
But the president of the Belize City Animal Aid, Diandra Fabro, says that might actually be the worst option for your pet. Fabro explained that they have a better chance surviving on the streets than tied to their doghouses.
Here's how she put it today via Zoom:
Diandra Fabro, President, Belize City Animal Aid
"Right off the bat, if you have a dog and most Belizeans have their dog outside, if you are going to a shelter and can't take your animal, try to find someone who could take your dog for you who is in a safe location, if you can't find that person to do that for you, the best thing you can do for your dog is let them of their chain or let them out of the yard or leave their gate open so that they could actually have a chance to survive the storm, if you leave your dog in a closed gate, they can drown, if you leave the dog attached to their chain to their doghouse, they will die. You don't want to come home to that, your neighbors don't want to see that, and we don't want to get calls in the middle of the storm about that so don't leave your dogs tied, please, let them off the chain. But if you're gonna be staying home, bring your animals inside. You need to bring them inside because it's the same thing, they could be stuck in the yard, they're not going to find shelter, your doghouse is not going to cut it. Same thing for your cats, if you refuse to bring [them] inside, let them loose."
"People do do that but honestly not enough people do that. Every single time there's a hurricane or a really bad storm, we get pictures afterwards, incredibly depressing pictures, during the storm, of dogs tied up, drowning, or dogs, afterwards, pictures of the dogs dead, tied up. It's not done enough so like I said, at the very minimum, if you cannot bring your dog inside, let your dog loose. He has a better chance than just staying tied up and just drowning."
"My recommendation is bring your dog inside, it shouldn't be that hard, keep him in the bathroom, keep him in the laundry room, keep him in one of the bedrooms, or tie him to your window inside the house if you have to. Put some newspaper underneath him, I guarantee you he won't even really pee because it's like that dogs behave, they don't want to pee or poo when it rains, he won't want to do anything in your house."
"For anyone who has their small dogs inside or are bringing their dogs inside, there's little things you can do to make your dog feel secure and safe and that would be throw a little blanket on the floor for him, get their beds prepared, if you know your dog is afraid of storms of lightning or thunder, you could easily online or you message us and we'll send you the image or the directions of how to make a secure thunder jacket out of a little T-shirt for your dog so that they feel secure because dogs get scared, dogs and cats both get scared during a storm."
The Belize City Animal Aid can be contacted through their Facebook page.
