Animal disaster planning: Tornado - a tough call
April 28, 2010
In 2008 a tornado whipped through a stable near Windsor, Colorado, destroying buildings. Flying, collapsing debris seriously injured horses inside or near their shelters.
We are not supposed to have tornadoes this close to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, but in June 2009, we survived another close call.
The sky turned black, the wind developed an odd wail, and sudden waterfalls of rain thought about turning to ice. Television and radio broadcasters announced a tornado warning, with funnel clouds sighted south of town.
The wind wailed louder, and we began getting calls about our horses spending the day outside in daily turnouts with no roof over their heads. People wanted their horses in, period.
I asked our vet, Dr. Allen Landes of Equine Medical Services, what to do under threat of a tornado. His reaction? ...
... Turn the horses out into our large, lower pasture where they can get away from the buildings. Given our crowd, suddenly mixing the different turnout groups could turn into a wild circus, and leaving beloved equine friends at the mercy of nature is not a popular solution.
Dr. Landes is not the only one who thinks the horses should stay out. “If I had significant concerns that the structure could not withstand the stresses of the storm, then turning the horses loose is a valid consideration,” says Michael Fugaro, VMD, in an American Association of Equine Practitioners “Quiz Question”.
Our barn, an airy, pole affair surrounded by 12 x 12 boards and covered in pressed wood siding, topped by a metal roof and sporting many windows, would be a shrapnel trap in a tornado.
If you have a particularly sturdy barn, you might consider challenging the tornado, and pulling horses inside. After seeing pictures of lacerated horses kept in during a tornado however, I would not choose this route.
There is also the question of time. Typically, severe weather hits suddenly, leaving no time for orderly withdrawal.
The wilder the weather, the worse the horses. Horses excited by sudden weather changes often escape their handlers or become dangerous. Many times, worried horses have tried to kick me during a heroic rescue attempt because clad now in strange rain gear, I have, from the horse’s perspective, turned into a monster-predator.
At our stable, human safety is the Number 1 priority with horses a close second, and if the danger to humans is too serious, the horses will have to wait. I too worry about our horses stuck outside in a sudden storm, but I try to remember that horses are descended from millions of years of hardy, plains-dwelling, weather-resistant stock. Typically weighing well more than 1,000 pounds, a horse has a much better chance than you or I of surviving most of nature’s sudden ills.
This is not to say that I believe domestic horses should be subjected to hours of pounding rain or snow. At that point, common sense dictates shelter. And for gradually approaching weather trauma, or any other impending disaster, it is good to have a plan. You can plan now for your animal family’s well being by reading the American Veterinary Medical Association’s brochure, Saving the Whole Family. Be sure to read the poem at the end, which broke my heart.
It is a tough call, but after balancing the risks to humans v. equines, we will continue to tell humans to take shelter and leave the horses out during sudden, violent thunderstorms, lightning strikes, or tornado threats -- until all danger is passed.
First aid: Surprise ingredient halts reaction
(Karin Livingston is a career stable owner and horse project 4-H leader. Her young-adult horse novel, Winning Bet, is available in paperback and on the Amazon Kindle.)