The devastating earthquake and tsunami that pounded the coastline of Japan in 2011 highlighted the need for an unprecedented animal emergency response network.
World Vets was the first animal relief organization on the ground in Japan to supply supplies, support to local veterinarians and manpower. Recognizing a need to support and promote the efforts of World Vets in Japan, the BlogPaws community launched Paws for Japan Blog Hop, an awareness campaign that led to World Vets having their single most successful fundraising day in the history of the organization.
As a result of this success, Blog Paws, World Vets and Dr. Jessica Vogelsang announced the Blogger Disaster Response Network. Members of this voluntary organization will be the first to be notified of a global disaster response effort through World Vets, and given all the information they need to spread the word about how people can help.
The recent touchdown of Superstorm Sandy on the U.S. east coast also sparked many organizations to release disaster preparedness material to pet families. The OSPCA, for example, published tips to prepare your pets for safety during emergency situations.
In addition, a recent PubMed article researched the curricula on animal/public health and emergency preparedness available to veterinary colleges in the U.S. Authors report from an evaluation of 257 PubMed-derived articles relating to veterinary/medical disaster training, only 14 fulfilled all the inclusion requirements. Much of the literature focuses on changing academia to meet current and future needs in public/animal health disaster -preparedness and careers.
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