I meant to write about two newspaper articles and a public service announcement on TV awhile ago, but I got distracted. Here they are now, instead. They're all about the growing recognition that pets are important to people, and they all appeared at about the same time, no doubt in response to the US president signing the "Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006" (PDF file) into law on October 6 (although that document is dated presumably the day it was presented to Congress). The bill and later law was created in response to the plight of pets and their human companions during Hurricane Katrina, when the people were forced to leave the animals behind. Terrible! Now states will risk losing federal money if their disaster plans don't include help for pets.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the new law on October 10, 2006 ("States must help save pets" by Kimberly Geiger).

National Geographic News wrote an article on October 6, 2006, about a number of religious groups that are recognizing the importance of pets ("Pets Gaining Recognition in Places of Worship" by Maryann Mott). This article describes a "growing movement among places of worship, some of which not only recognize the human-animal bond but offer pet owners support and services almost unheard of a decade ago." The article mentions an Episcopal church in Connecticut, a Jewish synagogue in California, a Catholic priest in Connecticut, a Baptist chaplain in North Carolina, and an Episcopal church in New Jersey, all of which are paying more attention to the importance of the human-pet bond.

Finally, the state of Michigan produced a TV ad at about the same time reminding people to create a plan for emergency preparedness. The state created a space on the internets called "Michigan Prepares." Both the TV ad (included — since it hasn't been showing lately) and the web site include information on preparing for pet needs in a disaster.

It's nice to see our social institutions paying attention to the things that people think are important.