Current studentsExisting staffContact us
 

No pet or their person left behind: increasing the disaster resilience of vulnerable groups through animal attachment, activities and networks

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorThompson, K.
dc.contributor.authorEvery, D.
dc.contributor.authorRainbird, S.
dc.contributor.authorCornell, V.
dc.contributor.authorSmith, B.
dc.contributor.authorTrigg, J.
dc.date.issued2014
dc.descriptionPublished: 7 May 2014
dc.description.abstractIncreased vulnerability to natural disasters has been associated with particular groups in the community. This includes those who are considered de facto vulnerable (children, older people, those with disabilities etc.) and those who own pets (not to mention pets themselves). The potential for reconfiguring pet ownership from a risk factor to a protective factor for natural disaster survival has been recently proposed. But how might this resilience-building proposition apply to vulnerable members of the community who own pets or other animals? This article addresses this important question by synthesizing information about what makes particular groups vulnerable, the challenges to increasing their resilience and how animals figure in their lives. Despite different vulnerabilities, animals were found to be important to the disaster resilience of seven vulnerable groups in Australia. Animal attachment and animal-related activities and networks are identified as underexplored devices for disseminating or 'piggybacking' disaster-related information and engaging vulnerable people in resilience building behaviors (in addition to including animals in disaster planning initiatives in general). Animals may provide the kind of innovative approach required to overcome the challenges in accessing and engaging vulnerable groups. As the survival of humans and animals are so often intertwined, the benefits of increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities through animal attachment is twofold: human and animal lives can be saved together.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityKirrilly Thompson, Danielle Every, Sophia Rainbird, Victoria Cornell, Bradley Smith and Joshua Trigg
dc.identifier.citationAnimals, 2014; 4(2):214-240
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/ani4020214
dc.identifier.issn2076-2615
dc.identifier.issn2076-2615
dc.identifier.orcidCornell, V. [0000-0003-4816-9297]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/96865
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.rights© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/ani4020214
dc.subjectpets; animal attachment; natural disasters; vulnerability; resilience; protective factors; risk factors; preparedness; response and recovery
dc.titleNo pet or their person left behind: increasing the disaster resilience of vulnerable groups through animal attachment, activities and networks
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
hdl_96865.pdf
Size:
220.42 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download

Collections

Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning publications