When disaster strikes, what happens to our pets?

As large-scale disasters—including earthquakes, torrential rains, typhoons, and wildfires—become increasingly frequent, ensuring that pets as well as their owners can evacuate safely and receive appropriate care has become an important part of disaster preparedness.

At Okayama University of Science (OUS), the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is taking a proactive approach to this challenge. In addition to providing a designated evacuation site where people can take refuge with their pets, the faculty’s students are actively working to raise public awareness of evacuation with companion animals.

OUS is also exploring solutions that draw on the university’s distinctive strengths. Through its interdisciplinary “Quality of All Lives Project,” faculty members from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Faculty of Information Science and Engineering are combining their expertise to develop new approaches to protecting the health and well-being of animals during disasters.

For many people, pets are more than just animals—they are part of the family. In a disaster, ensuring human safety is paramount, but protecting the lives and health of companion animals is also an important concern.

Putting that principle into practice, however, presents a wide range of challenges. These include whether and how evacuation shelters can accommodate pets, how suitable environments for their care can be maintained, how owners can prepare in advance for emergencies, and how local governments can coordinate effectively with veterinary professionals and other relevant organizations.

In December 2018, the same year that OUS established its Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture—the first new veterinary faculty to open in Japan in 52 years—the university, the City of Imabari, and the Ehime Veterinary Medical Association signed a three-party agreement to cooperate in animal relief and rescue efforts during disasters.

Under the agreement, the university’s Imabari Campus was designated as an evacuation site where people could seek shelter with their pets in the event of a disaster. It was the first time in Japan that a university facility itself had been designated to accommodate people evacuating with their pets.

Following the signing of the agreement, “Establishing a Disaster Evacuation System for People and Their Pets” was introduced as a co-curricular program. Students in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine also launched Psfull, a group dedicated to raising public awareness of evacuating with pets during disasters.

The name “Psfull” comes from the many “P”s found in words that capture the spirit of the group—Pets, Peace, Happy, People, Positive, Power, and more; according to Dr. Kaori Saeki, an Associate Professor of Veterinary Associated Science, who established and managed this program.

The group is actively engaged in a wide range of activities. Members hold regular study sessions where they present on topics they have researched, organize seminars featuring guest speakers with volunteer experience in disaster-affected areas, and take part in disaster preparedness drills organized by local authorities to raise awareness of evacuating with pets. They also regularly meet and exchange ideas with student groups from other universities in the area.

Psfull currently has 23 members, including Kurumi Miyano, a third-year student in the Department of Veterinary Associated Science.

Those preparations were put into practice in March 2025, when a major wildfire—the 2025 Imabari Wildfire—broke out in an area about 10 kilometers from the Imabari Campus. It marked the first time the campus actually served as an evacuation site for people and their pets.

Drawing on the preparations already in place, the university opened its gymnasium to evacuees. Three households—seven people accompanied by 11 cats—came to the campus after learning about the evacuation site through social media and other sources.

During the evacuation, a cat, perhaps stressed by the unfamiliar surroundings, refused to eat the food its owner had brought. When the cat was offered emergency food developed through the university’s Quality of All Lives Project —designed to be eaten by both people and pets—it readily began eating.

“The students really put a great deal of thought into what they do,” says Dr Saeki. “I hope they will continue to serve as a bridge between the university and the local community, and help make evacuating with pets something that is no longer seen as exceptional, but simply as a normal part of community disaster preparedness.”

Saeki also points out that there is no single way to protect pets during a disaster.

“I recently saw news that, following the Kumamoto earthquake in July, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto City, and other organizations established the Kumamoto Earthquake Pet Relief Headquarters, and that seven veterinary clinics in Kumamoto City and elsewhere began temporarily taking in dogs and cats. In reality, evacuation can take many different forms. Whether pets evacuate with their owners, stay with them at an evacuation shelter, or are temporarily placed in care, we as professionals need to focus on minimizing stress for both pets and their owners as much as possible.”

Meanwhile, Professor Masumi Eto of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, who serves as Director of the Center for Quality of All Lives, is approaching the issue from a scientific perspective.

“We want to scientifically analyze how pets are affected by conditions in evacuation shelters and provide people with evidence-based information they can understand and trust,” Eto says.

Drawing on the collaborative project with the Faculty of Information Science and Engineering, Eto explains, “We aim to collect and analyze data from a wide range of signals animals give us, including vital signs such as respiration, pulse rate, and body temperature, so that their condition can be monitored. Both humans and animals experience intense stress during disasters. If we can use this knowledge to find ways to reduce that stress, even slightly, it should ultimately improve the welfare of both pets and their owners.”

A simple, non-contact vital-sign monitoring system, a device for measuring pressure when applying bandages, and video-based diagnostic technology for pets are among the devices currently under development through the Quality of All Lives Project. Expectations are high for the potential of these technologies.