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Pet Evacuation Kit Helps You Care for Your Pets During Emergencies | Pet Evac Pak

Pet Evac Pak pet evacuation kits Help You Care for Your Pets During Emergencies

Animal Innovations Show - Episode 111 - Pet Evac Pak

Pet Evacuation Kit Helps You Care for Your Pets During Emergencies | Pet Evac Pak

Did you know that 91% of pet parents today are not prepared to evacuate with their animal companions?

Good thing Pet Evac Pak offers pet evacuation kits that help you care for your animals even during disasters.

Founded by Claudia Wiles and Michelle Danielson, Pet Evac Pak is a women- and veteran-owned business that aims to give pet parents peace of mind knowing they’re ready if something happens.

According to Michelle,

“It’s best that we prepare for our own pets. That’s what we do, and that’s what we’re all about. We’re passionate about making sure that you’re prepared.”

Building Pet Evac Pak

story of pet evac pak

When asked how the story of Pet Evac Pak started, Michelle volunteered that it all began after a trip she took to Houston post-Hurricane Harvey.

She had returned home with four big dogs scheduled to be euthanized because their families were not prepared to take them.

“I was telling Claudia of my trip and how sad it was to see all the animals that had been left behind and all these people trying to find them and rescue them. And we thought, ‘Why would you leave your animal behind?’”

At the time, both friends were doing pet therapy with their dogs in a children’s treatment facility. However, Michelle’s experience had been too heartbreaking that they started researching situations like it.

“There was an article that actually came out in USA Today that said that 91% of people were not prepared to evacuate with their animals. So, we thought that this was a problem that we might be able to solve.”

This led them to look for go-bags that are currently on the market.

However, the problem was that Michelle and Claudia found the items “really inadequate”.

Some of the pet evacuation kits they found being sold at the time came in a bucket, a briefcase, and even backpacks. However, they didn’t have enough water or even pet products.

This encouraged them to develop go-bags that would be truly responsive to pet parents’ and animals’ needs in times of an emergency.

“We talked to first responders and a lot of people who had been evacuated. We also talked to veterinarians, and we came up with a perfect go-bag for your animals. So, if you have to leave, you grab your pet, you grab your backpack, your go-bag, and you’d get out.”

Inside the Kits of Pet Evac Pak

pet evac pak pet evacuation kit contents

According to the female co-founders, their pet evacuation kits at Pet Evac Pak are so good because they have already customized the go-bags for your dogs and cats.

In fact, each kit includes at least the following items:

  • 12 little pouches of water that you can share with your pets
  • Survival foods that are good for five years, which might be enough depending upon the size of your animals
  • A first aid kit specifically designed for both pets and their people (complete with gauze pads, alcohol wipes, tweezers, cotton swabs, cold packs, etc.)
  • ID tags for your dogs
  • A cat or dog toy

All of the items inside the kit are essential to your disaster plans with your animal companions.

The only thing you’ll need to do is add other items that are personal to you, like medications, your dog’s or cat’s favorite toy, or your favorite blanket.

Michelle said,

“Just make a plan. Just make sure your pets are part of your emergency plan. And make a plan for yourself as well. You know, a lot of people don’t do that. They think they’ll do it tomorrow, but tomorrow might not come in time.”

To which Claudia added,

“It’s one of those things where it can happen to you. It’s not that it will, and it’s not that it will never, but it can. And wouldn’t it be better to be prepared?”

 

 

Learn more about Pet Evac Pak!

Visit their website at https://petevacpak.com/.

Have suggestions for who we should interview next?

Send us a message at [email protected]!

Claudia: Hi, I’m Claudia Wiles and you’re tuned in to The Animal Innovations Show.

Chris: Excellent introduction.

So, Michelle, I’m going to start off with you. Why don’t you tell us who you are and how you’re innovating and helping animals.

Michelle: So, we started Pet Evac Pak late 17—2017— early 2018.

I had taken a trip to Houston after Hurricane Harvey to deliver some pet products down to the animals that had been left behind in some of the shelters.

I work with the Dalmatian Rescue Group out of Colorado. We had some dogs down there in Houston.

They were standing in water. We were trying to get them out. But anyway, so once I got them out, I took the supplies down there and it was just heartbreaking to see all the animals that had been left behind.

And so, back home, Claudia and I do our pet therapy work on Thursday nights at the children’s hospital. And we were walking along and I’m giving her my story and I’m telling her how sad it was to see all these animals that had been left behind and all these people trying to find them, and catch them, and—you know, rescue them.

And we said, “Why would you leave your animal behind?”

And so we started doing a little bit of research and there was an article that actually came out in the USA Today that says that 91% of people were not prepared to evacuate with their animals—right.

So, we thought, well, this is something that we could solve. This is a problem that we might be able to solve. So, we started doing the research and we thought, what’s out there now, is there a go-bag, or a pet like you have for yourself?

And we found that they were really inadequate. The ones that we found came in a bucket, came in a briefcase.

There was, I think, a couple of backpacks, but they didn’t have pet products in them other than the five-year shelf life food. And it wasn’t adequate food, there wasn’t enough food, there wasn’t enough water in them.

And so, we really did the research. We talked to first responders, we talked to people, a lot of people who have been evacuated.

We talk to veterinarians and we came up with the perfect go-bag for your animals. So, if you have to leave, you grab your pet, you grab your backpack, your go-bag and you get out because we’ve seen it with the buyers and stuff too.

We actually made five trips to the campfire—during and after the campfire once every month to deliver full new hauls full of pet food and supplies for the animals that have been left behind.

There were 4000 animals that had gone through the North Valley Animal Disaster Group shelter that they had set up— of pets that had been found. And those were just the ones that survived.

So, it’s really important that we prepare and we make a plan. Even if you’re evacuated and you grab your pet and you don’t have any supplies for them, and you show up at a Red Cross shelter, they’re not going to have supplies for your animals.

They might be able to send you down to the local humane society or animal control and they might have something set up, but they’re not going to have your food.

They’re not going to have your water. They’re not going to have enough bowls. We delivered bowls when they have the campfire,—not the campfire, but the Caldor fire up here.

They didn’t have enough bowls. And so, fortunately, Pet Evac Pak, I just received a huge order in. And so, we were able to donate a lot of bowls to the animal control up here for the Caldor fire.

So again, they’re not even prepared for these large events. So, it’s best that we prepare our own pet, for our own pets.

That’s what we do, and that’s what we’re all about. And that’s what we’re passionate about is making sure that you’re prepared.

Chris: So, Claudia, what do you guys put in these packs, right? I’m trying to think of myself like, what would I put in a pack for the cats?

Claudia: That’s what makes our pack so good is because we do that for you. We did all the thinking for you.

So, all you have to do will be to add stuff to it that would make it personal, like medications or if there’s a favorite toy or a blanket or something like that.

So, each kit contains everything you would need for 72 hours, should you have to evacuate. So, there is five-year shelf life, as Michelle said, five-year shelf life, food, and water.

So, every kit contains twelve little pouches of water, because that’s the most important thing. And that’s what Michelle is holding up. So, that’s the drinking water and it’s regular drinking water.

It’s good for you, it’s good for your animals. You guys can share, but that’s the thing—most important thing to have is the water.

And some kits carry the tablets that you can put in that supposedly sanitize the water. But—I mean— that is kind of iffy to me when we had floods here in Reno years ago, there was sewage in the water, and I don’t care how many tablets you put in, and I’m still not going to drink that.

The water is the most important thing. Then we also have the five-year shelf life food, and there’s enough food in there depending on the size of the animal, because we have different sizes of kits, then— one of the other items that we have is the first aid kit.

And this is something we’re very proud of. We really worked to get this first aid kit tailored to pets.

Chris: How has it been selling in the last couple of years? Has the pandemic helped you? How’s it going?

Michelle: It didn’t hurt us, but it’s, it’s—on a trajectory of steadily coming. We’re on Chewy now, we’re on Amazon.

Actually, Lowe’s contacted us a couple of months ago. They’re interested in doing a custom pack for Lowe’s.

Costco, we were actually on trajectory to get on with them right before the pandemic hit but we were going to do a roadshow and obviously, they stopped all the roadshows and they still haven’t gotten back to the roadshows so—so, that’s still on the table so we’re working with that but when we’ve been going to— we went to Super Zoo this last year and picked up, I think, five new retail customers.

Chris: So, Michelle if people are interested I know you rattled off before some of the retailers but maybe tell them the website where they can learn more where they can buy or build one.

Michelle: They could come to WWW.PETEVACPAK.COM and again we’re on Chewy’s, we’re on Amazon.

Chris: As we wrap up our show today I’ll just remind everybody if you ladies came up with this idea just based upon your own experiences and that’s where innovation comes from.

If you’re listening or watching and you’ve got a great idea that’s going to help animals or the people that love them, we want to know about it go to INNOVATIONS.SHOW and we’d love to have you on the show to talk about it.

And I always remind people to be a volunteer, go to DOOBERT.COM. We need more Dooberteers so you can be a transporter, foster, so many other things you can do all of us love that animals so much.

So, thank you again, Claudia, Michelle very much for coming on. It was really great to talk to you.

Michelle: It’s great to be here. Thanks so much for inviting us. This was awesome.

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