The natural disasters and animals They are far more interconnected than we often think. Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and volcanic eruptions don't just affect people: they also brutally impact pets, farm animals, wild animals, laboratory animals, and zoo animals, and determine how communities can recover afterward.
At the same time, many animals show surprising behaviors before a disaster And, on many occasions, their well-being becomes a key factor in the human population's willingness to evacuate and follow the instructions of emergency services. Understanding how animals experience these events and how their protection is organized is essential if we want to talk about modern and ethical disaster management.
Animals as “living sensors” of earthquakes and other phenomena
Since ancient times it has been said that some Animals detect disasters before we doGreek authors already recorded that, in the year 373 BC, mice, snakes, weasels, centipedes and beetles abandoned the city of Helice days before a great earthquake that devastated it.
Today, science doesn't talk about magical powers, but about much finer senses Many animals can detect minute vibrations in the ground, changes in atmospheric pressure, air humidity, or electromagnetic fields—signals that foreshadow earthquakes, severe storms, or eruptions.
The mice and dogs They detect high-frequency sounds that we can't even hear; elephants are specialists in very low frequencies that travel through the ground; insects and other invertebrates perceive vibrations with their legs or bodies. All of this explains why, in some cases, they react hours or days in advance, fleeing or changing their behavior.
However, the investigation has not yet found solid and universal evidence that would allow us to use animals as a reliable early warning system for all disasters. What does seem clear is that certain behavioral changes can give us valuable clues if observed systematically.
Species that have shown behaviors prior to disasters
Cases have been documented in various parts of the world where certain species behave abnormally before earthquakes, tsunamis, or severe storms. There isn't always scientific consensus on the mechanism, but the patterns are striking.
The cats They may become restless, hide, or try to flee their homes a few hours before an earthquake or volcanic eruption. It is believed they are able to sense changes in air pressure, very subtle vibrations in the ground, and sounds beyond our hearing. Following the great earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, many accounts reported unusual behavior in domestic cats prior to the event.
Brianda cowsSome studies have found that, up to six days before an earthquake, they reduce their milk production This pattern was also observed on farms located far from the epicenter during the 2011 disaster in Japan. Anticipated stress from physical changes in the environment could explain this drop in productivity.
birdsBirds, especially seabirds, react very sensitively to atmospheric changes. They may deviate from their routes, fly differently, or seek shelter when they perceive a sudden drop in air pressure associated with a hurricane or an intense storm. In the case of albatrosses, they have been observed modifying their flight pattern when they detect these variations.
The Elephants They are a frequently cited example. Before the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, numerous elephants moved to higher ground, farther from the coast, hours before the waves arrived. Their ability to perceive low-frequency vibrations and distant sounds appears to play a key role.
With the SharksScientists have observed that, prior to storms and hurricanes, some groups move towards areas where there are abrupt changes in water temperature, precisely where the storm will hit, and then descend to deeper areas to take refuge.
El oar fishThe stingray, known in Japan as the "earthquake fish," was popularly associated with earthquakes and tsunamis, especially after the 2011 disaster, where numerous sightings were reported beforehand. However, a 2019 study found no robust statistical relationship between seismic activity and the presence of this species, making the connection more myth than reality.
In Italy, it was documented how the frogs They abandoned their ponds days before an earthquake in 2009. It is suspected that they may have reacted to the ionization of air molecules produced by the tension in the Earth's crust. In another Italian study, it was observed that the bees They returned to their hives in unusually high numbers before an earthquake, perhaps because of their sensitivity to changes in pressure and humidity.
The Dogs Other notable signs include continuous barking, howling, erratic behavior, and attempts to escape shortly before an earthquake, all of which have been described in several studies. It is likely that they perceive very faint ground vibrations or changes in air composition.
snakesSensitive to electromagnetic variations, they have been seen emerging from burrows and even breaking out of hibernation hours before earthquakes. A famous case is the 1975 Haicheng (China) earthquake, of magnitude 7,3, where researchers had already observed strange patterns in local snakes.
50 years of protecting animals in disasters
Beyond what they might anticipate, animals suffer the full impact of extreme events. For more than half a century, international organizations They work alongside governments and communities to integrate animals into disaster preparedness and response.
Millions of people depend on them farm and working animals to feed themselves, earn a living, or cultivate their land. Many others find in their companion animals a key source of emotional support and part of their family. Therefore, when a disaster strikes, the harm to animals directly impacts the livelihoods, mental health, and economic recovery of communities.
In these 50 years of response work, various entities have already assisted more than 4 million animalsDeploying emergency teams capable of reaching the affected area within days. Once there, they work with local partners to assess needs and implement rapid and effective aid programs.
Assistance may include emergency veterinary treatmentfood and water supply, vaccination and animal healthEvacuation of animals at risk, reunification with their owners, and construction or reinforcement of safe shelters. The sooner the animals' situation stabilizes, the sooner people can focus on rebuilding their lives.
But the work is not limited to acting after the disaster has already occurred. An essential part is the previous preparation: create emergency plans that include animals, establish early warning systems, train the population and improve infrastructure to reduce damage.
How to prepare communities and governments to include animals
Experience shows that it is much more effective to invest in prevention and preparation than in rebuilding afterwards. Hence, numerous programs focus on strengthening communities living in high-risk areas, always integrating animals.
Among the usual actions is the population formation to care for your animals during and after the emergency: what to do in the event of an evacuation notice, how to handle frightened dogs and cats, how to protect livestock in floods or storms, etc.
They are also designed community emergency plans that not only consider the evacuation of people, but also that of pets and farm animals, the location of shelters that accept animals, and clear protocols on who does what in each phase of the disaster.
Another fundamental aspect is the installation of early warning systems For floods, fires, or hurricanes, the plans include specific messages on what to do with the animals. Work is also underway on how to store and protect food and water for them, reinforce corrals and stables, and ensure shelters so they can withstand winds, earthquakes, or floods.
The campaigns of vaccination and animal health They reduce the risk of disease outbreaks after a disaster, when hygiene conditions worsen and many animals are crowded together or mixed with other herds. And disseminating public messages about animal care in emergencies helps keep the issue top of mind.
Why animal-related disasters are an ethical and safety issue
Far from being inevitable facts, many Disasters are the result of human decisionsWhere we build, how we exploit the land, what intensive production systems we accept, or what infrastructure we reinforce. Catastrophes occur when these hazards combine with high vulnerability.
It is estimated that each year more than 40 million animals They are affected by disasters, a number that is increasing with climate change, urbanization, and the intensification of livestock farming. Even so, official definitions of “disaster” tend to focus on damage to people and property, ignoring that animals are sentient beings.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a watershed moment. Besides causing 1.836 human deaths The disaster, with damages estimated at around $110.000 billion, highlighted the fact that emergency management had neglected pets. It is estimated that some 50.000 companion animals were abandoned, and between 80 and 90 percent of them died. The subsequent rescue operation was the largest of its kind in U.S. history.
Before Katrina, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assumed that pets should be left behind during evacuations. The result was dramatic: approximately 44% of the people who refused to evacuate They did so, at least in part, to avoid abandoning their animals. The lesson was clear: ignoring animals compromises human safety.
Since then, the approach “Save animals to save people"has gained strength. The human-animal bond can be used as leverage to improve compliance with evacuation orders, reduce risky behaviors (returning to the danger zone to rescue animals) and minimize the psychological impact after losing an animal companion."
Inequality between types of animals in disasters
Society tends to categorize animals in a kind of sociozoological scaleAt the top are companion animals, more protected and valued; then working or production animals; and at the bottom are wild animals, laboratory animals or animals destined for consumption, with less legal and social protection.
This system means that, in practice, some animals are much more vulnerable to disasters. Livestock in factory farms, poultry in large sheds, or animals confined in laboratories depend entirely on human infrastructure: water, ventilation, automated feeding... If something fails due to a fire, an earthquake, or a power outage, the consequences can be massive.
There is no shortage of examples. In 1999, the Hurricane Floyd In North Carolina, it caused the drowning deaths of approximately 2,8 million poultry, 30.500 pigs, 2.000 cows, and 250 horses. In the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake in New Zealand, more than 20.000 chickens died or had to be culled due to the collapse of cage systems.
In 2006, a generator failure in the Ohio University This caused the heating system to malfunction when power was restored, reaching temperatures of approximately 40,5 °C. Nearly 700 laboratory animals died. And in 2002, the Prague Zoo It suffered severe flooding that killed more than 150 animals.
Zoos and aquariums typically plan primarily to prevent escapes of dangerous animals and protect the public, but They do not always fully consider the well-being of all individuals in the face of floods, earthquakes, or armed conflicts. A positive example was the Kabul Zoo after the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, when it was reported that the animals continued to receive care despite the change in power.
Another dramatic case was that of the cattle transporter Queen HindThe ship capsized in 2019 with more than 14.000 sheep on board. More than 13.800 died, drowned or crushed. It was later discovered that the vessel had secret decks that contributed to the overloading and instability. Here, the cause of the “disaster” was purely human: a highly risky system for exporting live animals.
Phases of animal disaster management: prevention and risk reduction
Emergency management works with a four-phase cycleRisk reduction or mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Applied to animals, this approach allows us to consider their entire "life cycle" within the disaster, not just the moment of rescue.
In the phase of prevention or reduction The aim is to eliminate the danger or reduce it to acceptable levels. This involves, for example, not building barns or intensive farms in floodplains, seismically reinforcing cages in earthquake-prone areas, or installing automatic fire suppression systems and extra water reserves.
At the other extreme, the scarcity of regulations governing the location of mega-farms This leads to many farms being built on cheap and dangerous land, such as floodplains, which increases the vulnerability of millions of animals. Municipal ordinances could prevent such locations and avoid incidents like those mentioned earlier during hurricanes or earthquakes.
In the economic sphere, United Nations agencies indicate that each dollar invested in prevention It can save up to fifteen percent in post-disaster recovery. For producers and administrations, strengthening infrastructure or improving designs is not only ethical, it's also profitable.
Preparation: plans, training and international standards
the phase of preparation It involves having a clear plan of action for when, despite mitigation efforts, disaster strikes. It's an opportunity to agree on roles, coordinate organizations, and design realistic responses based on how people actually behave.
A classic principle in emergency management is that plans should be based on probable, not “correct” behaviorsWe know that many people will refuse to leave their homes if they cannot take their animals, as seen in Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Ignoring this fact in planning doesn't make it disappear; it only makes the situation more dangerous.
That's why it's essential that the Emergency plans should include animals explicitly: how they will be evacuated, who is responsible, where they will be safely housed, what veterinary resources will be available, or how animals without a known owner will be handled.
There are standards such as the one for Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP)These guidelines establish criteria for emergency management at the national, regional, or local level. Applied to animals, they cover everything from resource management and logistics to communications, training, practical exercises, and subsequent evaluation.
Specific components are added to these general requirements: Humanitarian euthanasia and depopulation when there is no other option, disposal of carcasses, safe capture protocols in evacuated areas, on-site feeding, management of zoonotic diseases, adoption and relocation of unclaimed animals, among others.
The value of this entire phase lies not only in the final document, but also in the process of to bring all parties to the same tableAuthorities, veterinarians, animal protection organizations, farmers, emergency services, etc. When plans are drawn up without consulting each other, they become mere pieces of paper to "check the box."
In countries like Australia, national planning principles for animals in disasters have been developed, and organizations such as the FAO have published best practice manuals for livestock emergency management. A distinct discipline is gradually being established in this field. animal disaster management, with its courses, conferences and professional networks.
Answer: rescue, shelters, and common mistakes
When disaster strikes, the phase of professional This is usually the shortest but most visible phase in the media. The window of opportunity to rescue animals before they die from injury, hunger, thirst, or stress is very small and requires fine coordination.
In the livestock sector, insuring animals through poorly designed insurance policies can have evil effectsIf compensation is only triggered when animals die, some producers may lack the incentive to invest in their rescue. Experiences in countries like Myanmar, following Cyclone Nargis in 2008, show that restocking herds without controlling animal health introduced new diseases and exacerbated existing problems.
In parallel, it is common that volunteer groups They organize themselves to rescue animals, without coordination with emergency services. Sometimes they work without protective equipment, permits, or safety training, which puts their lives at risk and can hinder official operations.
This “spontaneous response” may end delegitimizing animal rescue The authorities perceive it as chaotic and dangerous. Furthermore, some organizations confuse welfare tasks (food, shelter, adoption) with technical rescue, using the term "rescue" as a marketing ploy even though they lack the actual capacity to operate in high-risk scenarios.
Another source of tension is when they occur previous wellness problems as if they were a direct result of the disaster: chained dogs that already lived like that before a flood, stray animals photographed in damaged cities, etc. Although the disaster makes their situation visible, it is not always the cause, and mixing both aspects distorts the analysis and future planning.
A key piece of the answer is the shelter for displaced animalsTraditionally, animal-only shelters have been used, where staff assume all care. These are expensive, difficult to scale in large emergencies, and cause stress to the animals by separating them from their caregivers.
Newer models opt for co-located sheltersThese systems include pet-friendly accommodations where people stay in a building near their animals, or cohabitation shelters where both share space as a family unit. These systems reduce stress, facilitate care, and are much cheaper to operate than animal-only shelters.
The simple lack of carriers and cages This can lead to evacuation failures, especially in homes with several small animals. Therefore, some organizations anticipate dangerous situations by distributing pet carriers to the public and providing guidance on their use, thus improving both human and animal safety.
Ignoring the need for pet-friendly shelters has serious consequences. After Japan's 2011 triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident), elderly people slept for weeks in cars parked near evacuation centers that did not accept animals, enduring cold, isolation, and even problems such as deep vein thrombosis due to lack of space to move around.
Recovery: Rebuilding with the animals in mind
While the response is still being processed, planning should begin. recovery phaseIt's not just about returning to the previous normality, but about "building back better," incorporating measures that reduce future risk to people and animals.
In this phase, issues such as facilitating are crucial. pet-friendly rental accommodation, help reunite lost animals with their families, restore veterinary services, support local shelters and strengthen animal-related infrastructure to better withstand the next event.
The lack of pet-friendly housing after a disaster has forced many places to abandoning animalsIt happened in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, where animals were not allowed in the displaced persons camps, and in Christchurch after the Canterbury earthquake, where the shortage of apartments that accepted pets led to numerous forced resignations.
We must also take care of those who have worked with animals during the disasterVeterinarians, technicians, and volunteers are exposed to very difficult scenes and an intense emotional burden. A global study showed that more than half of the veterinary response personnel experienced behavioral health problems during and for up to six months after their intervention.
Managing lessons learned is another key element. Lessons learned should be developed after each event. post-action reports (After Action Reports) that document successes, failures, and recommendations. However, these documents are rarely shared openly, for fear of reputational damage, and often the lessons learned are not implemented.
In an analysis of two disasters in New Zealand (the Edgecumbe flood in 2017 and the Nelson fires in 2019), only 7% of the animal-related lessons It had actually been implemented. Repeated problems in training, legislation, planning, and information management showed that, in practice, they were still stumbling over the same stones.
Cases from Latin America: earthquakes, hurricanes and eruptions
In Latin America, recent disasters have highlighted that The inclusion of animals in official plans remains limited.The September 19 earthquake in Mexico left some 150 pets missing in the first few days alone, in a country where it is estimated that there are 22 million dogs and 5,5 million cats spread across more than half of the households.
Even so, official protocols barely consider animals. They are the civil organizations and society They often organize collection centers for food, medicine, and accessories for affected animals, open social media channels to publicize lost and found animals, and coordinate specific rescues in damaged buildings.
In the eruption of the Chaitén volcano (Chile, 2008), the initial evacuation prohibited taking animals outOnly after intense public pressure were rescues permitted, but the delay resulted in thousands of preventable deaths. Following experiences like this, Chile has begun to include dogs and cats in its responsible pet ownership law during emergencies, although other domestic animals remain unprotected.
Hurricane Katrina, with more than 600.000 dead or abandoned animalsThis led to the passage of the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act in several US states, which mandates the inclusion of animals in evacuation plans. In Peru, however, the 2007 Lima earthquake also caused thousands of animal deaths because these animals were not considered in the contingency plans.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 left countless animals trapped in the exclusion zone, dying of hunger and thirst because no evacuation plan had been put in place. Cases like that of Naoto Matsumura, who decided to remain illegally in the area to feed and care for the abandoned animals, became symbols of a outstanding ethical debt.
The droughts in Madagascar in the early 1990s caused the death of many domestic and wild animals, showing how prolonged weather events They are also disasters for wildlife and livestock, although they do not generate images as shocking as an earthquake or a tsunami.
Rescue animals and emotional bond in emergencies
Animals are not only victims, they can also become victims. essential allies in rescue effortsIn Mexico, after the recent earthquakes, the dogs of the Navy's Search and Rescue Team (BREC) — such as Frida, Evil, Eco or Logan — became known for their ability to locate people trapped in rubble.
Frida the Labrador dog, for example, had already accumulated dozens of rescues Throughout their careers, they have worked with both survivors and deceased victims, thanks to meticulous training in search and rescue, narcotics detection, and explosives detection. These stories have contributed to a large part of society seeing animals as companions, not just as "pets."
Debates have also arisen about the use of mixed-breed dogs in rescue units, based on examples like Manolo, a mixed-breed dog from the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office, demonstrating that with proper training the potential of these animals is enormous.
At the same time, the population usually reacts with a great wave of solidarity towards animals In disaster contexts: donations, volunteering, temporary fostering, social media campaigns… All of this contrasts with the indifference or daily mistreatment that many of these same animals suffer in “normal” times, where they continue to wander the streets, being abused or treated as mere street furniture.
The emotional impact of losing a pet in a disaster is very real. Studies following Katrina show that loss of a pet It can generate levels of post-traumatic stress similar to those of losing one's home, which confirms the depth of the emotional bond and the need to integrate it into public policies.
Fully integrating animals into disaster management implies assuming that their well-being is intimately linked to the safety, mental health and resilience of human communities. From prevention and legislation to evacuation, shelter and reconstruction, every decision that includes them reduces suffering and improves outcomes for all; ignoring them, on the other hand, not only multiplies animal victims, but also makes our societies more fragile in the face of disasters that, to a large extent, we ourselves help to create.
