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Protecting Animals When Disaster Strikes

New California Veterinary Emergency Team to Coordinate Training, Response

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Veterinary Emergency Response Team members care for horse.
嘿嘿视频 Veterinary Emergency Response Team members help care for horse in the field during the LNU Lightning Complex fire. (嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine)

Quick Summary

  • Evacuating, sheltering, caring for animals is enormous task made more difficult in state under siege from wildfires
  • California Veterinary Emergency Team to coordinate robust, unified effort to help animals during disasters
  • Team will recruit and train volunteers, veterinarians on best practices in shelter and emergency medicine
  • 嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine uniquely positioned to administer program

University of California, Davis, leaders, veterinarians and California legislators today unveiled a new emergency program to help . Called the California Veterinary Emergency Team and administered by the 嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine, the program will support and train a network of government agencies, individuals and organizations to aid domestic animals and livestock during emergencies.

California is providing $3 million a year for the California Veterinary Emergency Team, under legislation authored by Sen. Steve Glazer and incorporated into the state budget recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The program will be modeled after the 嘿嘿视频-led Oiled Wildlife Care Network, created in 1994 to mobilize volunteers and professionals to rescue and treat shorebirds and other wildlife that are injured during oil spills.

鈥淲e want to create a robust, coordinated effort statewide to help animals during disasters,鈥 said Michael Ziccardi, director of the and executive director of the One Health Institute. 鈥淭he California Veterinary Emergency Team will bring together state and county agencies and organizations charged with emergency response to help them organize, train and adopt best practices.鈥

Current need

A primary goal of the new California Veterinary Emergency Team is to increase response capacity and help standardize disaster response across counties, bringing together disparate and fragmented groups. Currently, the California Animal Response Emergency System, or CARES, within the California Department of Food and Agriculture is charged with managing evacuation and care of animals during emergencies. They also work with community animal response teams and nonprofit organizations.

Cat receives treatment at 嘿嘿视频 after suffering injuries in the Camp Fire.
This cat was one of 70 animals brought to 嘿嘿视频 Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for treatment for injuries from the 2018 Camp Fire. (嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine)

 

鈥淩ecent wildfires have overwhelmed the state鈥檚 ability to safely evacuate and care for household animals and livestock,鈥 Sen. Glazer said. 鈥淭wice in the past five years we have had to call on Texas to send an emergency team to assist. That puts not just animals at risk but also increases the danger for residents and first responders if people stay behind fire lines because they fear their animals will not be cared for. We need this new team to help train, coordinate and lead the hundreds of volunteers who are eager to help. Our goal is a team that is ready to respond anywhere in the state with a mobile command center, a clinic if necessary, and the veterinarians, equipment and medicine to get the job done.鈥

The California Veterinary Emergency Team would be available to mobilize response to disasters anywhere in California, operating under a memorandum of understanding with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Office of Emergency Services. Between disasters, the team would recruit, train and drill volunteers, conduct research, and train veterinarians and veterinary students on best practices in shelter and emergency medicine.

Leaders in the field

嘿嘿视频 has provided leadership in veterinary disaster response through its , Wildlife Disaster Network partnership formed with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and its Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital disaster patient care. 嘿嘿视频 VERT and hospital teams typically triage, evaluate, treat and/or rescue more than 1,000 animals in the field every wildfire season. During the 2018 Camp Fire alone, the teams helped more than 1500 animals, including 70 that were brought in for treatment at the hospital.

嘿嘿视频 veterinary team care for alpaca with burns.
嘿嘿视频 veterinary team cares for animals at the Butte County Fairgrounds evacuation center during the Camp Fire. (Don Preisler/嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine)

 

鈥淭he funding of the California Veterinary Emergency Team provides unprecedented resources that will bring multiple partners across the state of California together to enhance recruitment, coordination, and training of volunteers, veterinarians and veterinary students in best practices in disaster response and sheltering of animals in disasters,鈥 said Michael Lairmore, former dean and distinguished professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Lairmore said the university is committed to working with partners across the state to ensure that the California Veterinary Emergency Team program is successful. Developing the California Veterinary Emergency Team is expected to take some time. It鈥檚 anticipated the program will be in an organizational phase during this fire season.

Media Resources

Media Contacts:

  • Michael Ziccardi, 嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine, 530-979-7561, mhziccardi@ucdavis.edu
  • Steve Harmon, communications director for Sen. Steve Glazer, 916-539-5005
  • Amy Quinton, 嘿嘿视频 News and Media Relations, 530-601-8077, amquinton@ucdavis.edu

 of animal disaster response and care efforts

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