June is National Pet Preparedness month, which is a great way to connect with pet owners and niche audiences in your community. While it might sound like something for the local animal shelter, Pet Preparedness Month actually offers a powerful and unique opportunity for your department to significantly enhance community safety and improve your on-scene response capabilities.
We all know that crucial moments can define an emergency. When your officers respond to a domestic call, a welfare check, a structure fire, or a medical emergency, the more information they have, the more effectively and safely they can act. This is especially true when it comes to the often-unseen members of a household: pets.
Imagine this: your officers arrive at a home to find a distressed individual. Simultaneously, they have instant, critical knowledge that there are two dogs and a cat inside, that one dog tends to hide in the basement, or that the cat has a medical condition. This kind of immediate intelligence, delivered before they even step through the door, can dramatically improve officer safety, prevent animal-related complications, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for everyone involved.
This is exactly where Smart911 comes in as an invaluable tool for your department.
What is Smart911.com?
Smart911 is a free, secure online service that allows community members to create a Safety Profile for their household. This profile is linked to their phone number and automatically pops up on a 911 dispatcher’s screen if they ever call for help. It’s a game-changer for providing critical, pre-vetted information to first responders.
For Pet Preparedness Month, we’re highlighting how your community members can utilize Smart911 not only to protect their animals but also to provide your officers with vital intelligence:
- Know Who’s Inside: Citizens can list the number and type of pets in their home. This immediately alerts responders to the presence of animals that might need to be accounted for or evacuated.
- Behavioral and Location Insights: A profile can indicate if a pet is timid, potentially aggressive, or prone to hiding in specific areas (e.g., “dog barks at strangers,” “cat hides under the bed during loud noises”). This allows officers to approach situations with greater awareness and minimizes risks to both personnel and animals.
- Crucial Medical and Contact Info: Owners can include important medical information about their pets (e.g., “dog requires daily medication,” “cat has a known allergy”). They can also list emergency contacts specifically for pet care, ensuring that if an owner is incapacitated, their animals can still receive appropriate attention.
- Beyond Pets – Comprehensive Property Details: Smart911 isn’t just for pets! The Safety Profile can include details about hidden driveways, alarm codes, or the location of utility shut-offs – information that is crucial for a safe and efficient response to any incident at the property.
Build a more prepared community
We know that encouraging community members to sign up for new services can be a challenge. That’s why, in observance of Pet Preparedness Month, we’re offering our support to help your department drive Smart911 registrations.
We have marketing resources and outreach materials ready to assist your efforts, including a social media graphic to grab attention and highlight the pet preparedness aspect of Smart911. If you need ideas, try this social media copy as your caption: June is National #PetPreparedness Month. Include your pets in your family emergency plan and Smart911.com Safety Profile #PetPreparedness
We also have a printable flyer and trifold pamphlet that can be distributed at community events, local animal shelters, veterinary clinics, or within your precinct.
By promoting Smart911, your department isn’t just advocating for pet safety; you’re actively building a more informed and resilient community, equipping your officers with crucial data, and streamlining emergency responses. Let’s make this June a month where we significantly boost our community’s preparedness, ensuring that every resident – two-legged and four-legged – is accounted for and safe during an emergency.
