3 thoughts on “Rescuing pets in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina”

  1. It is interesting how important this issue turned out to be, since many people in the area affected by the storm who would otherwise have accepted official help in evacuating were reluctant to flee without their pets. The aid bureaucracy was slow to acknowledge the problem, as bureaucracies tend to be. IMO this is another reason to be cautious about federalizing emergency-aid efforts — the bigger and more remote the bureaucracy, the less responsive it will be to feedback and to the needs of the people it is supposedly aiding.

  2. this is another reason to be cautious about federalizing emergency-aid efforts — the bigger and more remote the bureaucracy, the less responsive it will be to feedback and to the needs of the people it is supposedly aiding.

    Jerry Pournelle certainly would agree:

    One thing is clear: federalizing everything into “FEMA” was a horrible idea. When there was an Office of Civil Defense and LOCAL Civil Defense organizations coordinated through the Federal OCD, there were training exercises, many of the officials were volunteers who lived in the area, they made use of retired military people. There was a Director of Civilian Marksmanship and a conscious effort to arm Civil Defense people to form a well regulated militia.

    …

    Well, in New Orleans and Mississippi they had no choice but to “trust FEMA”. The centralizers won and pursued, and extirpated most of the old Civil Defense organization. THEN came Homeland Security, which swallowed FEMA and neglected it.

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