Quake Also Shook Up a Few Pets

The Sierra Madre earthquake displaced more than chimneys.

Animal shelter officials say dozens of dogs and cats ran away from their homes in the two days following the June 28 temblor, with more than 200 ending up at San Gabriel Valley shelters.

Although many of the pets have since been reunited with their families, some were still waiting late last week to be brought home to that familiar dog dish or rubber mouse, shelter officials said.

But it doesn’t have to be like this, shelter officials say.

To prevent the additional trauma of losing a pet after an earthquake, shelter officials recommend that owners put identification tags on their animals so that owners can be easily notified.

“About 80% of these animals don’t have identification and that’s too bad because if they need medical attention we don’t know what to give them,” said Steve McNall, executive director of the Pasadena Humane Society and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The shelter usually takes in five or six stray pets a day but had 19 the day of the quake, McNall said.

Officials at the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society in San Gabriel also said the number of animals taken in after the quake was greater than normal. However, at the Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control Center in Baldwin Park, officials said the number of strays seemed no higher than usual for this time of year.

To prevent future quake-related runaways, shelter officials recommend that owners try to keep their pets in a secure place, such as behind an escape-proof fence or wall. This can be difficult when earthquakes tumble walls and fences, but it might have kept Sadie inside her yard.

The golden retriever apparently wiggled between the bars of an iron fence through which she had escaped several times before, said owner Kathleen O’Connor. After the quake, the dog wandered aimlessly about Pasadena until she was picked up by Pasadena Humane Society officials four days later along Sierra Madre Boulevard, four miles from her home.

The reunion was a happy one. O’Connor and her two teen-age children had spent days biking around the neighborhood, posting signs and placing lost dog advertisements in newspapers. “When we went to pick her up she came jumping out, wagging her tail and with her head up,” O’Connor said.

To soothe nervous pets in the aftermath of an earthquake--especially when strong aftershocks continue, such as a 4.0 shake on the Sierra Madre Fault Saturday--officials also recommend that owners give the animals reassuring pats and hugs.

If a pet becomes violent after a quake, owners should take the animal to a veterinarian for a tranquilizer, McNall said.

Veterinarians reported giving out a few tranquilizers after the quake, but said most animal anxiety attacks are short-lived.

“We saw a lot of nervousness and clinging,” said Sylvia Domotor, a veterinarian at the Monrovia Animal Hospital. Also common were excessive drooling, barking and dilated pupils. But, she added, “it wasn’t as bad as in past earthquakes,” when numerous cats were treated for broken bones after they fell off fences or out of trees.

But, animal experts said, when pets are calm, they can help reassure stressed-out owners.

“Pets provide a lot of comfort to people,” McNall said. “They are the best earthquake de-stressing tool.”