© Kathy Milani/HSUS Wayne Pacelle comforts a dog at the emergency shelter in Gonzales, Louisiana.

All of us in animal protection spend most of our time opposing acts of human cruelty and neglect, and providing and encouraging responsible care. Animals are completely at the mercy of human power, and that power is put to both good and evil purposes. We live in a conflicted culture that encourages so many random acts of compassion yet tolerates so many appalling forms of abuse.

But for all of our dominance over animal nature, we’ve yet to subdue the inanimate forces of nature. If anything, as we witnessed in 2005, we are seeing more natural disasters than ever before—whether drought, fire, flooding, tsunami, or hurricane. They bring great suffering to humans and animals alike. When these forces gather and uncoil, here, too, animal advocates are called to respond.

Hurricane Katrina proved to be America’s greatest ever natural disaster, and its raw power, fed first by the warm August waters of the Atlantic and then more gluttonously by the Gulf of Mexico, was something to behold. It was also a calamity fed by shortsighted municipal planning, vulnerable structures, and the failure of government and the people themselves to plan ahead.

Disaster planning for animals is a relatively new component of the humane movement. The HSUS formed its Disaster Services section just 15 years ago, and it was a modest program wedged into an organization with an abundance of competing priorities. Local humane societies and animal control agencies have, at varying paces, examined disaster preparedness and done some of their own planning and capacity-building.

As Katrina set her own course, animal organizations sent out the call to people within the projected path of the storm to evacuate with their animals. To their credit, tens of thousands of people did that very thing. Many others did not or could not, and what ensued was a chaotic race to help those in need, within a region where the human circumstance was grave and where telecommunications and transportation were nearly shut down.

© Kathy Milani/HSUS

It was in many respects a watershed moment for the humane movement. National organizations, local groups, and thousands of individual activists responded with speed and resolve and cooperation. Millions of others responded with acts of generosity, donating needed dollars and supplies to aid the rescue, relief, and reconstruction efforts.

Yes, many animals were lost—whether companion animals trapped in homes, horses or cattle stranded in flooded areas, or farm animals tossed about as the factory farms that confined them were shredded by Katrina’s winds.

But many animals were saved, and the heroism of people was as awe-inspiring as the forces of Katrina. More than 10,000 companion animals were rescued in Louisiana and Mississippi, and many thousands more were provided food and water. Several thousand animals were reunited with their human companions, and those who were not reunited found loving homes in welcoming communities across America.

The rescue of helpless animals, described so often by the media, riveted the nation and called us to continue to act. A rescue mission that I thought might last two or three weeks at most went on for six or seven, with animals trapped in homes exhibiting a tenacious will to live.

The work to rebuild stricken communities and their animal care institutions will continue for years. But now it is our task to professionalize our field, to prepare citizens for their own responsibilities, and to reform government policies so that provision is made for animals.

As a society, we witnessed so many expressions of the human–animal bond: people who planned and left with their animals, others who stayed and would not leave without them, and still others who were called by conscience to the crisis to rescue and reunite. Now the world better understands the bonds between people and animals. And for our own part, all of us in the humane movement must always be at the ready. We cannot prevent these inevitable cataclysms, but we can soften the blows they inflict.

Wayne Pacelle is the President & CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.