Emergency Hotline RescueMyAnimal.org/1-833-RESCUE-8 Gives Hurricane Victims a Fast, Easy Way to Report Pets in Need of Rescue

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to make disaster pet-rescue efforts even more effective, Adopt-a-Pet.com has launched RescueMyAnimal.org and 1-833-RESCUE-8 to provide a simple way for hurricane victims whose pets are in danger to alert all animal welfare organizations that are conducting rescue operations in their area.

Hurricane Irma is expected to cause significant damage, and there are indications that many people were unable to evacuate, or evacuated and left their animals behind.  In the aftermath of a disaster of this magnitude, evacuees may not be able to return to feed or provide shelter for their animals. Complicating matters is the fact that local animal welfare agencies may find themselves to be non-operational after the hurricane.

"After the storm, national and local animal welfare organizations will be operating in Florida doing what they can to provide resources to help rescue, house, and return pets to their homes when possible, but there has been no clear single place where people can alert them to pets need of their assistance. We have quickly launched RescueMyAnimal.org and 1-833-RESCUE-8 to give people who are desperate to have someone rescue their animals a simple way to make that request," says Adopt-a-Pet.com cofounder and CEO, David Meyer.  "Although we cannot guarantee that any agency will be available to help, we will immediately pass the information on to all agencies operating in the area," continues Meyer.

Adopt-a-Pet.com, a nonprofit animal welfare organization that specializes in technology to help pets and people, is working with all of the major national and local animal welfare organizations. The organization has launched a variety of tools to assist hurricane victims, including FosteraHurricanePet.org to assist people in need of temporary homes for their pets.

Best Friends Animal Society is one of the organizations that Adopt-a-Pet.com worked with to develop the new hotline, as the nonprofit has been leading the charge on unifying the animal welfare movement around using a consistent set of tools to work more efficiently, effectively and ultimately save more lives. 

"There's long been a need for a centralized place to report an animal in need of rescue, as well as a way to efficiently connect emergency responders with pets in need," said Marc Peralta, operations command for Best Friends Animal Society. "RescueMyAnimal.org/1-833-RESCUE-8 gives everyone one single point of contact to help our team on the ground rescue as many animals as possible."

"We expect the volume of pets in need to exceed the limited capacity of animal welfare agencies to operate given the expected level of destruction and the vast areas affected," says Meyer. "But at least we can make it easier for people to request help, and do all we can to be sure that the organizations who may be able to help are aware of the request. Our goal is to give people and their pets the best chance of both surviving and being eventually reunited."

About Adopt-a-Pet.com

Adopt-a-Pet.com is North America's largest non-profit pet adoption website, helping over 17,000 animal shelters, humane societies, SPCAs, pet rescue groups, and pet adoption agencies advertise their purebred and mixed breed pets for free to millions of adopters each month. Sponsored by the pet lovers at Purina, the Petco Foundation, Petco, and Bayer Animal Health LLC, Adopt-a-Pet.com

About Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends Animal Society is the only national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. A leader in the no-kill movement, Best Friends runs lifesaving programs in partnership with more than 1,900 rescue groups and shelters across the country; regional centers in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Salt Lake City; and the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters nationwide from 17 million per year to about two million. That means there are still nearly 5,500 dogs and cats killed every day in shelters, just because they don't have safe places to call home. We are determined to get that number to zero by the year 2025. Working together with you, we will end the killing and Save Them All^®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.

SOURCE Adopt-a-Pet.com