Article 51: Animal Control
(Category: emergency-responses)
Article Summary
Publicly owned animal control facilities are standardly eligible for Public Assistance. Additionally, Private Nonprofit (PNP) animal control facilities may access grant funding if they provide health and safety services of an essential governmental nature. FEMA breaks animal control assistance down into three distinct areas:
- Emergency Protective Measures (Direct Operations): Covers costs to locate, pick up, shelter, and care for dangerous animals posing an immediate threat to public safety, or animals that are pets of registered disaster shelterees.
- Emergency Protective Measures (Facility Protection): Covers immediate measures taken to prevent imminent disaster-related physical damage to the animal control facility itself.
- Permanent Repair: Covers structural restoration of the facility to the extent that the repairs are directly tied to the control of dangerous animals or the care of pets belonging to disaster shelterees.
Five Key Takeaways for CTA FEMA Compliance
- Verify Direct Government Contract Terms for PNPs: If operating as a PNP animal control group, ensure you possess an executed contract from a local government entity before claiming emergency response expenses.
- Isolate Pet Care to Registered Shelter Survivors: Limit emergency boarding and feeding claims strictly to animals belonging to registered disaster shelter evacuees or animals representing verified public safety hazards.
- Deduct Baseline Operating Capacities: Only claim reimbursement for veterinary labor and kennel supplies that exceed your agency's normal, everyday non-disaster operational baselines.
- Restrict Treatment to Emergency Inoculations and Stabilizations: Limit veterinary expense claims strictly to immediate, short-term stabilizing treatments and mandatory crisis inoculations; omit long-term medical care.
- Map Operations to Pet Evacuation Policies: Align all field capturing, sheltering, and transport workflows with the explicit eligibility boundaries established under FEMA Policy 9523.19.
