ZDR3 Planning, Preparedness, & Readiness
Advancing a culture of preparedness across the zoological community to safeguard people, animals, and facilities nationwide.
What Contingency Planning & Preparedness Resources Do You Need?
Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery (ZDR3) is working to better understand the planning, preparedness, and readiness needs of zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other facilities housing non-domesticated animals across the country.
What We Offer
Preparing for emergencies is one of the most important responsibilities faced by facilities that care for non-domesticated animals. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, infrastructure failures, human-caused catastrophes, and other crises can develop rapidly, placing extraordinary demands on the professionals responsible for protecting staff, animals, and critical operations.
Built by the industry, for the industry, this initiative reflects real-world experience and the collective knowledge of professionals working across the zoological and disaster response communities. By sharing lessons learned and practical considerations, ZDR3 aims to support those who care for animals by strengthening preparedness, awareness, and planning in facilities.
Together, we can build a stronger, more prepared zoological community, ready to protect people, support operations, and safeguard the animals in our care.
Built From Real Response Experience.
This initiative is directly informed by ZDR3’s work coordinating operational and personnel support during some of our industry’s most difficult days, and builds upon our existing mission and response work.
These insights are shaped by real-world coordination across the broader disaster response community, including:
ZDR3 responders supporting zoological facilities
Collaboration with local, state, and federal emergency management agencies
Perspectives and strategies gleaned from first responders and military personnel
Operational experience from veterinary professionals, animal care staff, and facility leadership
Lessons learned through complex, multi-agency disaster response and recovery environments
Together, these perspectives provide a practical, field-tested foundation for preparedness, planning, and readiness.
Help Shape This Resource
Preparedness is strongest when the community works together. This initiative is built by the industry, for the industry, and reflects shared experience and expertise of professionals across the zoological field. We invite input from the broader zoological community, as well as agencies of jurisdiction, emergency management partners, and others who support facilities caring for non-domesticated animals before, during, and after disasters.
What preparedness tools, resources, or topics would be most helpful and impactful for your facility and others across the country?
Complementing Existing Industry Programs
This initiative is designed to complement, not duplicate, existing programs by focusing on:
Enhancing safety for staff, guests, animals, and responders amid environmental and societal uncertainty
Offering tools that simplify the creation of guidelines, contingency plans, and training for extremely difficult situations that are stressful even to contemplate
Helping facilities integrate ZDR3 support into planning materials to strengthen response coordination and timeliness
Operational lessons learned from real-world disaster response and recovery
Practical considerations drawn from actual incidents
Preparedness insights gained during recovery operations
Reducing operational strain, stress, and burnout after significant events
Questions & Comments
Feel free to send us a message with any questions about the services and resources we provide.