Many Colorado families with pets and livestock must learn to live with the risk of natural and man-made disasters, including wildfires, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, severe thunderstorms, earthquakes, incidents involving toxic chemicals, radiation and infectious diseases.

We know that there will eventually be disasters in our state. Will the next disaster threaten your household? Would you be prepared if it happened tomorrow?

The information on these pages provides information on how to prepare your family, home, livestock and pets for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster. Only through planning will you maximize all likelihood that your family and animals can evacuate to a safe location.

Animal lives are necessarily going to take second priority to human lives in an emergency situation, so the better prepared we are for all aspects of disaster management, both as individuals and as a community, the more likely we are to enable local emergency personnel to commit resources to saving animals.

Individual planning, neighborhood planning and community planning are the best methods by which we can seek to protect human lives, animals, homes and businesses. State and Federal resources take time to mobilize and will not aid in the initial stages of evacuation and response to a crises.

The Colorado Federation of Animal Welfare Agencies has the responsibility of planning statewide emergency programs for pets. CFAWA can help local agencies through planning assistance, speaking programs, and training and can provide direct assistance during disasters. Current CFAWA emergency contact numbers are available on our website at www.cfawa.org