Following the recent disastrous wildfires in Greece, the country has established its new National Plan for the Protection of Animals During Natural Disasters. The efforts of the influential Greek animal welfare group Dogs’ Voice and others during those wildfires helped demonstrate how such a coordinated response could work in practice.
The National Plan marks an important step towards making animal protection a formal part of national disaster management, moving it from ad hoc emergency response into Greece’s formal civil protection system. The plan was launched under the joint authority of the Ministries of the Interior, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, and Environment and Energy.
The new framework recognizes that animals must be considered not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of disaster preparedness and emergency response. Animal rescue is now formally part of the system with a designated National Animal Crisis Coordinator.
In a country increasingly affected by wildfires, heatwaves and other hazards, the plan can help responders act faster, improve coordination and ensure more animals can be rescued, treated, sheltered and reunited with their families.
Several other countries have established formal national frameworks or integrated animal protection into their national disaster plans. Costa Rica, India, Portugal and Spain are among those that explicitly incorporate animal welfare, evacuation and rescue into their civil protection or disaster response strategies.
