I have a friend in the military who was working at Reunion Arena in Dallas while they were taking in the refugees. (I hate that word)

Anyway, this is what he had to say about pets in the Dallas shelters:

As for FEMA.... they have much the same problem that the Red Cross has... STRICT adherance to regulations. In the Military we adhere to regulations right up to the point where they interfere with succesfull completion of mission. in fact we beleive regulations are for the GUIDANCE of the commander, however FEMA/RC beleive that the regs are more important than the mission (people); this attitude I witnessed time and time again over the 2 weeks I was deployed.

One example is their policy on pets, one man came in dirty, tired with no shoes and he had a very small (2 lb) puppy with him... Let me tell you how vicious a 2lb dog is ... anyway all he wanted was to grab a shower a meal and a single set of clothes and he said he'd leave the shelter. The RC shelter manager refused him that unless he put the dog in a kennel that wouldn't release the dog for 72 hours after they got him... this pup was literally all the man had. I got pissed, ordered one of my Privates to secure the "horrible vicious and obviously rabid CUJO impersonating dog" (personal note I don't think that statement earned me brownie points with the RC Shelter manager [RCSM]) and we watched the pup for about an hour, while the man took care of his business and got cleaned up some, then he left the shelter to parts unknown with his dog...

Another prominent example revolved around a service dog for the hearing impaired... the RCSM refused to beleive that there was such a thing as a service animal for the hearing impaired even after one of his own sign-translators told him there was, his response was "where's his appropriate harness?" (now keep in mind I'd been on post for 23 hours by this time and my normally cheery personality had degraded somewhat) I spoke to one of my troops in a somewhat loud voice "Well I tell you MY dogs ALWAYS keep their special harnesses with them when they go through a hurricane"... once again no brownie points with the RCSM, but I got the distinct impression most of the evacs around me like me...
At least someone is trying hard to let these people, some of whom have nothing else, keep their pets. Apparently the government has no desire to do the same.