Tuesday 27 June, 2006

Pet love

Percy, originally uploaded to Flickr.

This is Mr Percy (thanks to Virginia for the pic). We are minding him while his parents are away. Anyway, I use him to illustrate an issue I, as a cat-lover have become concerned about. If Bird Flu hits, what are the authorities going to make us do to our pets (and I'm not just talking about cats here)? Wired has an article on the subject today that points out that while governments, in a time of crisis, would be tempted to order all pets to be put down, many pet owners would refuse. This became particularly apparent after Hurricane Katrina, when many people refused to leave their pets, as they were being ordered to do: 'a Zogby International poll released last October found that 61 percent of pet owners surveyed would refuse to evacuate before a disaster if they couldn't take their animals.' The efforts to save chickens and other birds from culls when bird flu has broken out (for economic reasons obviously, not just ones of affection) has led to people fleeing with the animals and, if anything, spreading the disease in the process. If there is a pandemic, this will not be an easy question to resolve.

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