The claim that the PETS Act requires hotels/motels to shelter your animals is false.
Let me explain.
Why Was The PETS Act Passed?
The PETS Act was signed into law on October 6th, 2006.
The bill was brought forward after the events of Hurricane Katrina. Before and during Katrina, there were no evacuation measures for pets set in place when natural disasters occurred in the United States. None. At all. Because of that, it’s estimated that about 70,000 pets were left behind. It’s believed that 15,000 of them were killed.
Images of families leaving their pets behind made international news. One in particular showed a young boy being torn away from his beloved dog, Snowball. Aftermath pictures showed dogs stranded on car roofs and cats swimming to get to safety. The loss and horror was so high, lawmakers decided that evacuation efforts for pets, as well as people, were necessary during future events.
What Does The PETS Act Do?
The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to create guidelines for state and local emergency services to use in regards to pets and families with pets during natural disasters. If states wanted FEMA funding, they needed to create emergency plans that:
- Allows pets to stay in state or federally funded shelters during natural disasters.
- Allows families with pets to enter community shelters with their animals.
- Allows rescue operations specifically to save household pets and service animals.
States that included pet rescue and relief efforts in their emergency planning would continue to get FEMA support. Community shelters that allow animals can even be reimbursed for their care later on.
Why Does The PETS Act Not Apply To Hotels/Motels?
The PETS Act only applies to government agencies.
Hotels and motels are not government or state run entities. They are exempt from the law and are not required to shelter animals during natural disasters. It is not illegal for them to turn away pets if it is against hotel policy.
Why Is This Important?
Many people are reblogging the original post without checking how accurate the sources are, if any sources are even provided. Some people in the path of a hurricane may read and believe said information without finding out the truth until they arrive at a hotel. There were reports of a family having their dogs turned away from a hotel during Hurricane Harvey.
Some families may choose to leave their pets in the car and stay into the hotel themselves. Others may lie and then sneak their animals in anyway. Others, still, may leave and try to find more accommodating shelter somewhere else. Either way, this is added stress to an already stressful situation. And it can be dangerous.
If families decide to leave and look for different shelter, they could get stuck in flood waters. It only takes a few inches of water for cars to start floating. If they start floating, they can be dragged through the currents and into extremely flooded areas. Something like this happened during Hurricane Harvey. Six people in one van died because their car was submerged in flood waters after the family members tried to escape the area.
During times like this, proper safety and shelter information is a must. You should always double-check everything before you reblog it when lives are on the line. You don’t know who’s reading it. You don’t know who will believe it. You don’t know what that misinformation will cost someone.
in Florida Governor Rick Scott waived most hotel pet policies
This also is not true.
No sources about Rick Scott’s statements on the hurricane state that hotel policies are waived. Hotels are being asked to waive their no-pet policies. They are not required to. He cannot make hotels do anything of the sort. They are not a government or state run entity.
Day: September 8, 2017
Click here to support A leg up for Shannon. organized by Shannon Barber
HI I posted an update that reads as follows I’d rather not go into the details but I will answer questions about this if asked.
As always even if you can’t donate please boost. Now is the time and I really need the help to get this visible to more people.
Thank you-
The update-
HI folks.
A wee update.
So my partner and I absolutely have to move at the end of our lease. Our current apartment is inaccessible to the point that, frequently he is unable to leave the house at all due to a lack of bus service and six flights of stairs.
This has had a major impact on our finances this month/end of last month. Due to a serious flare up of one of his medical conditions, we essentially had to spend most of our food/other stuff money on medication.
The area I’m looking at moving into is (this is Seattle our housing market sucks) more expensive but will be healthier for both of us.
That said, we’re going to need a lot of help.
I’ll be editing the ultimate goal. The short version is, to make the move as safe and non-life ruining as possible, I’m going to aim to save/raise about 5K.
I have some extra work I will be doing and whatnot but reality is, I have to keep this fundraiser open/active if we’re going to survive.
So please, if you have thought about boosting but didn’t, now is the time. If you can’t donate please share, we really appreciate it.
Help spread the word!
Click here to support A leg up for Shannon. organized by Shannon Barber
DREAMers, don’t stop dreaming
You’ve probably heard by now that President Trump and his Attorney General Jeff Sessions have decided to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Originally created by President Obama, the program provided hope and protection to nearly a million children of undocumented immigrants, many of whom have growing up knowing no other nation besides the United States of America.
In their hearts, in their lives, DREAMers are Americans. And they are human beings. The cruelty of deporting them to an unfamiliar land is matched only by the recklessness of doing so. Immigration is vital to our identity, our economy, and our culture. To extinguish the dreams of DREAMers is not only unkind, but fundamentally un-American.
So, Tumblr, here are some ways you can help each other out:
- Call Congress and tell them to pass the DREAM Act. There’s a six-month delay before Trump’s order kicks in, and that’s six months for Congress to get their act together on this. Light a fire under them, will you?
- Join an event near you, and connect with others IRL who are fighting for what’s right.
- Don’t forget to take care of yourself, especially if you’re one of the people directly affected by this. You can’t just fight—you also have to heal.
- Tell your story. Tag it #DREAMer. Let people know what you’ve experienced, and let other DREAMers know they’re not alone.
And if you could use some perspective on what it’s like for a DREAMer right now, please read this Answer Time session with an undocumented immigrant who took your questions on her situation, her hopes, and her fears. It’ll open your eyes, it’ll open your heart. It’s what the world needs right now.
Stay strong, Tumblr.
reading a paper on quality of life among 45-to-70-year-olds with Down syndrome:
“Individuals expressed a desire to be allowed to go to bed when they wanted to.”
😦
Imagine.
I lived in a room and board that failed the burrito test. (”If you’re not allowed to get up in the middle of the night to microwave a burrito, you live in an institution.”) No one stopped me from going to bed, but they did tell me I had to have my lights out by 10, and that I had to be out of the house by 10 the next morning. When I complained to my outpatient program that I needed more help than I was getting, they threatened me with board and care, where my cell phone would be taken away and I would lose contact with the outside world. My case manager sounded so damn smug, like he had caught me out, when he said, “if you’re really as helpless as you say, then you need to be in a board and care.” Like my only options were struggling to do things I couldn’t do, or surrendering my life to an institution.
When I tried to talk about these things with other people, they always rationalized it away. (I told my dad once that my caseworker was reading my e-mails as I wrote them, demonstrating extreme disrespect for my privacy, and he said, “Well, she’s probably making sure you don’t use the internet to goof off.” I was 22 years old.)
People tend to mock the idea that telling an adult when to go to bed, when to eat, etc., is a human rights violation, even though they would find it outrageous and absurd if anyone came into their lives to do the same thing to them.
And this is what people seem to think when they tell disabled activists we’re just not disabled enough to understand that some people really do need to be locked up and deprived of all autonomy.
Here’s a thing: the concept of sex as something dirty, something ‘good girls’ don’t do, is a huge part of rape culture. It creates shame and silence, enables victim blaiming and allows predators to vilify their victims.
So I get pretty pissed off when people try to vilify sex in the name of ‘protection’. From people who get paranoid about parents who kiss their children on the mouth to people who try to limit the acceptable age difference further every year and pretend minors don’t pursue and enjoy sex. People who call places ‘sexualised’ because visitors have the freedom to be sexual beings there. People who use the word ‘sexualised’ as if it means ‘tainted’.
That is not protecting anyone. It’s making sex more unmentionable, more hidden away like a dirty secret. You may claim to protect children but what you’re doing is stopping them from speaking honestly about their lives, their feelings and the times people took advantage of that silence.
Congress Wants to Change the Americans with Disabilities Act and Undermine the Civil Rights of People with Disabilities
From the article:
H.R. 620 would completely change the way in which a business is required to comply with the ADA. Instead of requiring that a business comply proactively, the bill would place the burden on the individual who is being denied access. This bill proposes that after an individual with a disability is denied access she must first notify the business owner, with exacting specificity, that her civil rights were violated, and then wait for six months to see if the business will make “substantial progress” toward access, before going to a court to order compliance.
Business owners can spend years out of compliance and face no penalty even after they receive notice, so long as the owners claim “substantial progress.” By allowing a business an endless amount of time to become compliant with the ADA’s reasonable requirements, H.R. 620 removes any incentive for a business to proactively ensure that people with disabilities have access. Instead, the bill encourages businesses to just wait until an individual’s civil rights are violated before making any changes.
And ya’ll wonder why I scream at people who try and tell me about how expensive and complicated the ADA is to comply with / enforce.
It’s that shit that gives bill like this their strength. Call your representatives. Use Resist Bot. Disabled folk AND OUR ABLE-BODIED ALLIES need to FLOOD the offices of our representatives and let them know that this bill will should not even be debated much less made law.
Do what you can from where you are and demand that those who can do more step up. I know we’re tired and I know it’s hard but don’t give up. Save yourself one last spoon and make sure the edges are good and sharp.
If you need someone to talk to, feel free to reach out. I’ll listen; I’ll empathize. You are not alone in this.
Resist Bot only works for your senators. This is a House bill.
They updated it! You can choose which one you need now. It’s super cool.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 