RALEIGH - A grown man cradled a colorful stuffed animal in his arms and rushed to a tent outside the state Department of Agriculture offices Saturday. A woman at the table took the cuddly pooch and read a tag on the collar.

"Five-year-old chow," she called out to a bunch of veterinarians and veterinary technicians standing behind her. "Constant sneezer."

It might have seemed like an episode of "Veterinarians Gone Wild," but the nearly 30 vets and vet technicians who rushed floppy-eared rabbits, stuffed birds and other toy animals through the mock shelter were learning how to better respond to a disaster. The vets, who came to Raleigh from all over the state, are part of the Veterinary Response Corps, a specially trained group charged with responding to events that can be catastrophic for animals.

As the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, many still shudder at heartbreaking images of evacuees from the Gulf coast having to abandon their pets for their own safety. Lessons learned from that disaster were at the heart of Saturday's training exercises.

At one point, participants donned white coveralls, masks and plastic booties to test what they would do if avian flu or some other communicable disease threatened livestock. The veterinarians worked with two live Sultan chickens, donated by a breeder in Harnett County. The chickens squawked as the vets swabbed inside their beaks to test for flu and other diseases.

At another site set up to mimic an emergency command center, the vets learned how to respond to callers with a variety of simulated problems -- 10 dead goats in a front yard; a dog bite in the middle of a storm; a veterinarian with waterlogged medicine.

The training exercises would help the state prepare for hurricanes, floods and other catastrophes, said Marty Zaluski, director of the emergency programs division of the state agriculture department. It comes at a time when Congress is considering making states and cities develop plans for tending to pets in emergencies.

Jimmy Tickel, emergency programs staff veterinary specialist for the state Department of Agriculture, urged the vets to lobby emergency managers in their home counties to develop plans for shelters that welcome pets. Tickel said he thought eastern counties often in the path of hurricanes should set up shelters along the Interstate 95 corridor.

Pets in the shelters would be isolated from people, but their owners would be close by and able to exercise their critters and clean up after them. Owners also would be able to provide care-givers essential histories that make treatment easier.

Shelter workers, no doubt, would still see abandoned animals, conference organizers said. But as Katrina showed, many people risked their safety because they did not want to leave behind beloved pets.

Conference organizers suggested setting up refuge for horses and other large animals at county fairgrounds, which typically are fenced. They also said there should be limits on the animals brought in from a storm.

Wildlife, Tickel said, often sense foul weather long before people and flee for safer grounds.

"Set 'em free, Willie," Tickel said. "Your shelters are not open to wild animals."

Agnes Davis, a veterinarian based in Winston-Salem, said the Saturday sessions were helpful, though it is difficult to anticipate everything.

"You can never really be ready for a disaster," Davis said. "That's why preparedness is so important -- to try and anticipate what you might see."