Animal Response Teams

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

Over the past many years my wife and I have joined several volunteer disaster response organizations. Our first was WEVR, Westchester Emergency Volunteer Responders. This was a county version of CERT, Citizen Emergency Response Team. We received lots of excellent training and a backpack of supplies but the program was utilized just once that I’m aware of. CERT works much better on the city or neighbor scale. Our county has switched its focus to MRC, Medical Reserve Corps, made up of volunteer doctors and other medical professionals.

Our next organization was the Red Cross Disaster Action Team. We responded to late night calls for help for families with house fires who needed a place to stay and supplies. We learned this is difficult to do with a full time job and our now on weekend call only.

While at a Red Cross volunteer event, we met the organizers of the Westchester Country Animal Response Team (WesCART). After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA realized that many families refused to evacuate their house if it meant abandoning their pets – Red Cross Shelters do not allow pets! In 2006 the Federal Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (P.E.T.S) Act was passed which requires state and local emergency preparedness plans to include the needs of individuals with pets or service animals during all phases of emergencies. To address this law most states have organized State Animal Response Team (SART) programs. WesCart is a component of the NY statewide EmpireSART.

So far we’ve been given an ID badge, taken online training courses and represented the organization at a Cat show. I’ve just completed the online course for Emergency Animal Sheltering and am overwhelmed by the complexities of a shelter. Topics include:

• Paper work
• Animal check-in and tracking (whose dog is this?)
• Security (is that cat really yours?)
• Decontamination (clean up the animals, vet care, cage cleaning, dealing with animal diseases)
• Safe animal handling (don’t get bit!)
• Animal separation (don’t mix un-fixed girls and boys! Don’t place dogs next to cats, cats next to birds, etc)
• Morgue (sorry your pet died)
• Staffing and supplies
• More paper work
• Food Prep
• Animal walking and waste disposal
• Etc.

I think managing a Red Cross Shelter for people is easier! Hopefully the residents won’t bite, won’t become misplaced, and you won’t be blamed if any babies are made.

Bottom Line

Volunteer! You’ll meet new people and learn new skills. You’ll discover that planning for any emergency is a four-step cycle:

1. Preparation – organizing supplies, attending training classes
2. Response – putting your skills and equipment to work during an emergency
3. Recovery – the cleanup afterwards and adjusting to the psychological impact
4. Mitigation – making new plans, what could be done better next time?