Effect of Pets on Human Behavior and Stress in Disaster

ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 18 April 2019 doi: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00113 Effect of Pets on Human Behavior and Stress in Disaster Aki Tanaka 1,2*, Jun Saeki 3 , Shin-ichi Hayama 1 and Philip H. Kass 2 1 Department of Wildlife Medicine, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Tokyo, Japan, 2 Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States, 3 Department of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan Edited by: Emily Patterson-Kane, American Veterinary Medical Association, United States Reviewed by: Joshua Trigg, Central Queensland University, Australia Joseph Taboada, Louisiana State University, United States Leslie J. Irvine, University of Colorado Boulder, United States *Correspondence: Aki Tanaka Specialty section: This article was submitted to Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences, a section of the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science Received: 06 December 2018 Accepted: 26 March 2019 Published: 18 April 2019 Citation: Tanaka A, Saeki J, Hayama S and Kass PH (2019) Effect of Pets on Human Behavior and Stress in Disaster. Front. Vet. Sci. 6:113. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00113 Animal-related consequences were not anticipated in disaster preparedness planning in Japan at the time of its massive earthquakes in 2011. Evacuation failure was quite common due to pet ownership in this disaster. Public attention to the welfare of affected animals in this disaster triggered an awareness of the importance of caring for their needs. However, research on human behavior toward pets or effect of pets on human during disasters remains sparse. In this study, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores among pet-owners and non-pet owners in Japan’s 2011 earthquake disaster were compared, and attitudes toward pets were evaluated. A questionnaire was distributed to attendees, and interviews were performed at an annual animal welfare event. The Japanese-language version of the revised Impact of Event Scale was used to evaluate PTSD from the disaster. PTSD scores were higher in pet-owners compared to non-pet owners immediately after the earthquakes, but were lower in pet-owners compared to non-pet owners 4.4 years following the disaster. Most people opined that pets should evacuate with people, although less than half of non-pet owners agreed with having animals co-located at evacuation centers. In order to enhance safety and security of both humans and animals at evacuation centers, it is important to proactively address animal issues in disaster preparedness planning. Although pets were regarded by some as adverse risk factors for human health and safety during a disaster; this study instead suggests that pets may play an important positive and protective role for disaster victims. Keywords: pets, animal welfare, disaster, PTSD, evacuation, shelter INTRODUCTION The Great East Japan Earthquakes of March 11th, 2011 were an unprecedented disaster that caused immense damage in a broad area covering approximately 1 million km2 (∼200 km from east to west in width and ∼500 km from north to south in length) along the coastline of northern Japan. The worst affected areas were the Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, where more than 18,300 people were killed or missing. Animals were also severely affected, including ∼1,850 cattle, 17,000 pigs, and 2,360,000 chickens that died from the earthquakes and resultant tsunami. Companion animals also fell victim to the disaster, contributing to the deaths of an estimated 16,000 dogs and more than 23,000 cats. The majority of these deaths were in the Miyagi prefecture, accounting for more than 60% of the deaths in dogs and ∼90% in cats. Frontiers in Veterinary Science | www.frontiersin.org 1 April 2019 | Volume 6 | Article 113 Tanaka et al. Effect of Pets in Disaster no exception. Although pet ownership has been considered a potential mental health concern during disasters (1), research on human attitudes toward pets or the effect of pets on their owners’ emotional states during disasters remain sparse. The objective of this study was to compare post-traumatic stress disorder scores among pet-owners and non-pet owners at the time of the disaster and ∼4 years later. Attitudes toward pets affected by this disaster were also evaluated among disaster victims living in the Miyagi prefecture. Animal concerns were not included nor clearly defined in disaster preparedness planning in Japan at the time of the earthquakes. With devastating damage impacting people over a broad area, human life remained the top priority for disaster relief immediately following the catastrophe. As a result, pet evacuation and pet-friendly shelters were not widely incorporated as part of the disaster response at the time. More than 2,000 predominantly human-only evacuation shelters were established in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures; however, pet-friendly shelters accounted for only 3% (65/2151). Acceptance of animals at human evacuation shelters depended on the discretion of shelter’s chief operating officer. Some shelters initially allowed animals in the early days of the evacuations, but then ceased accommodating them as the evacuation and sheltering continued due to complaints from some evacuees. Other shelters allowed owners to evacuate with their pets; however, owners were forced to tie or leave them outside in cages, resulting in some being swept away by the floods or frozen to death. Even when pet owners and animals were colocated, some of the former harbored feelings of guilt over creating more emotional distress for other evacuees. Rules to accommodate animals at evacuation shelters were not welldocumented nor consistent among shelters, causing conflict between pet owners and non-pet owners. Consequently, many pet owners were unable or reluctant to take refuge at them, remaining instead in their own vehicles in parking lots. Taking shelter in vehicles for prolonged periods imposed different health hazards on pet-owners, including deep-vein thrombosis, with one casualty reported in the Miyagi prefecture. Consequently, evacuation failure was quite common in pet owners in this disaster. Some people remained in destroyed houses or returned prematurely to save animals, risking their lives. Pets are a recognized risk factor for evacuation failure and prematurely re-entering sites in other natural disasters (1–4); therefore, the need to consider the human-animal bond, and to include animals in evacuation and disaster planning has been promoted (5, 6). In the United States, the Pets Evacuation and Transport Standards Act (PETS) was established after Hurricane Katrina to include companion and service animals in disaster planning. The Act also provided funding to states and localities for the creation, operation, and maintenance of petfriendly emergency shelters, along with rescuing, caring for, and sheltering animals in an emergency. Pet ownership in Japan (1 (...truncated)