Dear Dog Lovers 

We lucked out in 2006, but the previous hurricane seasons have shown the problems that people with pets have when forced to evacuate.  During Ivan, Dennis and Katrina, pet owners were faced with the troublesome choices of abandoning pets, evacuating with pets and risk finding shelter that would accept animals, or riding out a potentially life threatening storm so they could stay with their pets.  These strong emotional attachments and limited options for pet owners cause these citizens to make risky choices.  

Escambia County and the City of Pensacola should make accommodations in their hurricane evacuation shelters for pets.  Companion animals provide many of the benefits to our society, not just during time of normalcy, but in time of disaster, as well.  If disaster planning does not take into account the unique bond between people and their pets who they consider to be family members, then that planning falls short.   

Civic action is required!  We, the Pensacola Dog Owners Association, have a duty as dog lovers to do everything possible to see that pets have taken care of.   Please write your elected officials and tell them include pets in any disaster plan. 

City of Pensacola
180 Government Center
Pensacola, FL 32502

District 1:	P.C. Wu	pcwu@ci.pensacola.fl.us
District 2:	Sam Hall	shall@ci.pensacola.fl.us
District 3:	Mike DeSorbo	mikej37@bellsouth.net
District 4:	Marty Donovan	mdonovan@ci.pensacola.fl.us
District 5:	John Jerralds	jjerralds@ci.pensacola.fl.us
District 6:	Jewel Cannada-Wynn	jcannada-wynn@ci.pensacola.fl.us
District 7:	Ronald Townsend	rtownsend@ci.pensacola.fl.us
At Large 8:	John W. "Jack" Nobles	jnobles@ci.pensacola.fl.us
At Large 9:	Michael C. "Mike" Wiggins	mwiggins@ci.pensacola.fl.us

Escambia County
223 Palafox Place
Pensacola, FL 32501

District 1:	Mike Whitehead	mike_whitehead@co.escambia.fl.us
District 2:	Gene M. Valentino	district2@co.escambia.fl.us
District 3:	Marie K. Young	marie_young@co.escambia.fl.us
District 4:	Grover C. Robinson, IV	district4@co.escambia.fl.us
District 5:	Kevin White	kevin_white@co.escambia.fl.us

PDOA has a strong voice because of people like you. Exercise your civic voice and tell our city and county leaders to have evacuation plans accommodate pet owning citizens.

Sincerely,

The Pensacola Dog Owners Association