PETS Act 2006 and Stafford Act Pet Disaster Policy

The Law That Changed How America Plans for Pets in Disasters

The PETS Act 2006 — formally the Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, Public Law 109-308 — is the federal statute that put household pets and service animals into the framework of federally supported disaster planning. It is a relatively short law that amended a much larger one, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988, to require that state and local emergency plans include pets if they want to be eligible for FEMA disaster reimbursement.

The PETS Act did not create a federal pet shelter system. It did not make pet evacuation free. It did not give pets new legal rights in the way the ADA gave service animals public access rights. What it did was tie federal disaster funding to pet-inclusive planning — a structural requirement that has shifted state and local emergency management practice across the country over the past two decades.

For pet owners, understanding the Act matters because it shapes what to expect from local emergency response: that a pet plan exists somewhere, that pet evacuation is supposed to be addressed in the local emergency plan, that FEMA-funded shelters may include co-located pet shelters, and that pet-owning evacuees are an explicit category that local authorities are expected to support.

The Stafford Act Baseline

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, passed in 1988, is the foundational U.S. statute governing federal disaster response. It defines what counts as a major disaster, how federal disaster assistance is triggered (through a presidential disaster declaration), and how FEMA funds state and local disaster response activities.

The Stafford Act created the framework under which FEMA reimburses state and local jurisdictions for the costs of emergency response, evacuation, sheltering, and recovery. Before 2006, the framework did not specifically include pets. State and local jurisdictions could include pets in their plans, but no federal funding category specifically supported pet evacuation or pet sheltering.

The Stafford Act also defines the relationship between federal, state, and local disaster response. Federal assistance is supplemental to state and local capacity. The state must request federal help. FEMA does not parachute in on its own initiative. This structure means that pet-specific provisions live primarily at the state and local level, with federal funding as a reimbursement backstop. The pre-event implication for pet owners is in our pet disaster preparedness master checklist: know your local plan, because the federal layer is downstream of local execution.

Hurricane Katrina as the Trigger

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, causing catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and surrounding areas after federal levees failed. The disaster killed more than 1,800 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Among the lessons that emerged from post-event analysis: many pet owners refused to evacuate without their pets, and many people and pets died as a result.

Documented accounts from Katrina described pet owners staying in flood-threatened homes because evacuation buses and shelters did not accept pets. Some pet owners who did evacuate were forced to leave pets behind, and many of those pets perished. The visible suffering — animals on rooftops, in flooded homes, in abandoned shelters — became a national emergency-management failure narrative.

Congress responded with bipartisan legislation. The PETS Act passed the U.S. House and Senate within a year of Katrina and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in October 2006. The law was narrow in scope but pointed in intent: federal disaster funding had to start accounting for the reality that pet owners would not evacuate without their pets, and the system had to plan accordingly.

What the PETS Act Actually Says

The PETS Act amended Sections 403 and 611 of the Stafford Act. The amendments require that state and local emergency preparedness operational plans include the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals before, during, and following a major disaster or emergency, as a condition of receiving certain types of federal disaster assistance.

The law also authorized FEMA to provide assistance for the rescue, care, shelter, and essential needs of household pets and service animals, and the individuals with such pets and animals, following a major disaster or emergency. The Act made household pets and service animals an eligible category for federal disaster reimbursement.

What the law does not require: that every shelter accept pets, that pet evacuation services be free, that pet shelters exist in every county, or that any specific level of pet-shelter capacity be maintained. The Act requires plans, and ties funding to those plans, but leaves implementation details to state and local discretion. This is why state-by-state implementation varies so widely.

What Changed in Practice

In the years following the PETS Act, state and local emergency management offices have built more robust pet-inclusive planning. The most visible changes: co-located pet shelters alongside general human shelters (especially in hurricane-prone Gulf and Atlantic states), formal partnerships with humane societies and animal control agencies for emergency pet sheltering, pet-friendly evacuation transport in some jurisdictions, and reunification protocols that include microchip scanning and structured intake.

FEMA has updated its guidance and reimbursement framework to include pets and service animals as a recognized category. State emergency management agencies have hired or designated animal-response coordinators in many cases. Some states maintain pre-positioned animal-shelter equipment caches that can be deployed during a declared disaster.

The deployable responder networks — HSUS DART, RedRover Responders, ASPCA Field Investigations and Response — have grown to fill gaps when local infrastructure is overwhelmed. These networks were active before 2006 but expanded significantly in the years after Katrina. Their relationship with FEMA and state emergency management formalized in some jurisdictions through pre-event memoranda of understanding.

Microchip-based reunification has become the standard post-disaster recovery pathway. Pre-disaster microchip registration is now consistently recommended by FEMA, AVMA, ASPCA, and state emergency management. The pre-disaster registry update steps are documented in our pet microchip registry update pre-disaster checklist.

State-by-State Implementation Variance

The PETS Act created a federal-funding incentive for pet-inclusive planning, but it did not standardize implementation. State and local execution varies widely based on disaster frequency, political will, and the relationship between emergency management and animal welfare organizations.

Florida and North Carolina are widely cited as relatively robust pet-emergency-planning states, reflecting frequent hurricane exposure and post-event learning. Florida operates statewide pet-friendly emergency planning coordination through the State Agriculture Response Team (SART) and parallel structures. North Carolina has formal regional pet-emergency partnerships with humane societies and animal control.

Texas, Louisiana, and other Gulf Coast states have invested in pet-inclusive planning after multiple major hurricanes. The State Animal Response Team model — a public-private partnership coordinating emergency animal response across counties — has been adopted by several states as a coordinating framework.

Interior states with less frequent major disasters often have less developed pet-emergency infrastructure. California, despite frequent wildfire activity, has variable county-level implementation; some counties (Sonoma, Napa, post-Tubbs Fire) have robust pet-emergency planning, while others have minimal capacity. Pacific Northwest and Mountain West states vary similarly.

For pet owners, the practical implication is to verify what your specific state and county have actually built. The federal law sets a floor of “must have a plan to receive certain funding.” It does not guarantee that the plan in your county is robust or that capacity exists for your specific evacuation scenario.

What the PETS Act Does Not Do

The PETS Act does not give pets public access rights to shelters. The American Red Cross, in particular, does not shelter pets at most general-population shelters — and the PETS Act did not change that. The framework around what ARC does and does not accept is in our FEMA pet friendly shelter list and American Red Cross policy guide.

The Act does not require any specific level of pet-shelter capacity. A jurisdiction can comply with the PETS Act by having a plan that calls for ad-hoc coordination with local humane societies during an event — no pre-positioned capacity, no dedicated pet-shelter facility, no guaranteed availability. Compliance is a planning requirement, not a capacity guarantee.

The Act does not cover the costs of pet evacuation in most cases. Households are generally expected to pay for their own pet-friendly hotels, fuel, and travel costs. FEMA’s individual assistance program may cover some emergency expenses post-event for affected households, but advance pet-evacuation costs typically come out of the household’s own resources.

The Act does not extend to ESAs (emotional support animals) for public access. ADA service dogs have public access rights to general shelters; ESAs do not. The Air Carrier Access Act 2021 update further restricted ESA airline cabin access. ESAs retain Fair Housing Act protections in residential settings but have limited public-access protections during disaster sheltering. See service dog and ESA disaster evacuation rights for the distinction.

The Service Animal Carve-Out

Service animals are a separate category from household pets in disaster law. The ADA, enacted in 1990, gives service animals — dogs trained to perform specific tasks for individuals with disabilities — public access rights, including in emergency shelters. The PETS Act explicitly recognizes service animals alongside household pets but does not change service-animal access rights under the ADA.

In practice: a service dog can accompany its handler into an ARC general shelter, into pet-restricted public transportation, into any public facility covered by the ADA. A household pet generally cannot. The distinction is the basis for the legal advice that service dog handlers do not need separate evacuation arrangements for their service animal — the service animal goes with the handler everywhere the handler goes.

Emergency shelter staff sometimes confuse the distinction between service animals, emotional support animals, and household pets. The two ADA permissible inquiries — is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and what work or task has the dog been trained to perform — are the only verification questions shelter staff can ask. They cannot ask for documentation. The full framework is in our service-dog disaster rights guide.

What This Means for Your Plan

The PETS Act is a structural reason to plan, not a guarantee that your needs will be met by local infrastructure. Build your plan assuming you are responsible for your own pet’s evacuation, sheltering, and post-event reunification. Use any local capacity that exists as a backup, not a primary plan.

Verify in calm weather what your specific county and state have built. Call your county emergency management office. Ask what pet-shelter or pet-evacuation infrastructure exists. Ask whether they coordinate with HSUS DART, RedRover, or the state animal response team. Add the contact numbers to your pet emergency binder for vaccination, medication, and microchip records.

Engage the buddy-system caretaker network as your primary backup. The federal-state-local framework is a layer beneath your household plan, not a replacement for it. The buddy-system framework is detailed in our pet disaster mutual aid and buddy system guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the PETS Act become law?

The PETS Act was signed into law on October 6, 2006, as Public Law 109-308. It was a bipartisan response to lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Does the PETS Act require shelters to accept pets?

No. The Act requires state and local emergency plans to include household pets and service animals as a condition of receiving certain FEMA funding. It does not require every shelter to accept pets. The American Red Cross, in particular, does not shelter pets at most general-population shelters.

Does the PETS Act cover emotional support animals?

The PETS Act covers household pets and service animals. ESAs are typically grouped with household pets under the law, not service animals. ESAs do not have ADA public access rights, including in general-population shelters.

What happens if my state has not implemented the PETS Act well?

You plan around the gap. The federal law sets a floor of planning, not a ceiling of capacity. Build your evacuation around pet-friendly hotels, buddy-system caretakers, and any local capacity that does exist. Verify local infrastructure in calm weather and update your binder.

Does FEMA reimburse my pet-evacuation costs?

Generally not for advance evacuation expenses. FEMA’s individual assistance program may cover some emergency expenses post-event for households affected by a declared major disaster, but pre-event hotel, fuel, and travel costs typically come from household resources.