News / Society
How to survive an emergency with your pet
An emergency evacuation exercise for pets has taken place in Sea Mills.
The event at The City and Port of Bristol Social and Sports Club centred on an unfolding hypothetical emergency, aiming to test run the evacuation procedures that would fall into place if such an event were to take place for real.
From a gas leak to flooding, if you could not return to your home and had no one to stay with,Bristol City Council’s Civil Protection Unit (CPU) and their volunteers would take control.
is needed now More than ever
The CPU put a key focus on caring for the elderly and vulnerable who may have more complex medical, accessibility and dietary requirements, but today’s exercise was particularly focused on making sure our animals and pets would be safe in an emergency.
Kitted out with water bowls and dog beds, the social club-come-emergency refuge centre was ready to care for both beloved pets and essential working animals.
Bristol’s CPU has won Gold in the RSPCA’s Community Animal Welfare Footprint awards three years running for their committed efforts to embed animal welfare into their contingency planning.
In their ongoing attempts to test the capabilities of emergency processes, the possibility of inviting local school children to act as evacuees was discussed to ensure their evacuation process would be able to perform.
Civil protection manager Simon Creed explained the importance of making sure all the procedures would work in the worst case scenario and stressed the importance of these test runs.