Care of Pets in Emergencies
In 2024, shocking news has been coming since New Year’s Day.
On New Year’s Day, the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred, and on 2nd Jan, a collision occurred between a JAL flight and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda Airport.
Pets are also allowed on board aircraft. However, pets are basically to be kept in a dedicated area.
In the recent accident at Haneda Airport, two pets were on board JAL aircraft.
Of course, they were unable to rescue the two pets. However, considering the circumstances of the fire, it would have been very difficult to rescue the pets.
Airline companies deal with aircraft that fly at very high altitudes (extreme cold), so they are very careful about the environment in which pets are kept.
Even so, we occasionally hear of pets that have died.
As a pet parent, I do not want to use airplanes to travel with my pets.
According to an article in Sankei Shimbun, some people said, ‘Please allow us to carry them in the passenger cabin with us, not in the cargo space.
(They say cargo space, but they mean an air-conditioned cargo space.)
So I checked to see if any airline companies in Japan allow pets to be kept in the passenger cabin, and found one company that does.
Of course, there is a cost because they occupy a seat (which seems to be more expensive than humans).
However, the following statement was included in the agreement for bringing pets.
In case of emergency, pets must be left on board when evacuating.
It may be unavoidable because airline companies instruct passengers to evacuate without their luggage in case of an emergency.
However, we do not pay a fee for the luggage we bring into the passenger cabin.
Also, even though you have significant living pets with you, can you abandon it in an emergency?
Even the same service is got, each person perceives it differently.
Many people may prefer this service because the probability of an emergency occurring in an aircraft is very small.
For me,,, sorry to say, but I feel that this service is halfway service than differentiation.
I am not denying this service. Given the global situation, I think it would be very difficult for a single airline company to change emergency rules.
The problem I see is how pets are treated during disasters.
I think the first thing we need to consider is that there are no evacuation centers where people can evacuate with their pets when a disaster occurs.
I think the main reason for this is that in times of disaster, it is difficult to take care of people, and therefore there is not enough time to take care of pets.
Barriers to this discussion would be the current variety of pet types, people who are not comfortable with animals, people who are allergic to animals, etc.
For this reason, I think that the discussion about `pet-friendly evacuation centers’ could be a never-ending discussion.
Rather, I would like each local government to discuss issues such as designating places to set up tents to spend time with pets, and rules for distributing emergency supplies to people who are waiting at home (including in the garden).
It is estimated that about 10% of all households have pets, and pets can no longer be ignored.
National and local government representatives, please put this on your agenda.
Reference: AIR LIVE(2024/01/04)
https://airlive.net/emergency/2024/01/04/japan-airlines-has-apologized-after-announcing-that-they-were-unable-to-rescue-two-pets-during-the-tokyo-haneda-accident/
Reference: Japan Pet Food Association (2022 – Results of a nationwide survey on dog and cat breeding）
https://petfood.or.jp/topics/img/221226.pdf
Thanks.
2024/01/04