You feel the need to help as you watch the devastation unfolding on the television. Innocent animals becoming innocent victims. They are homeless and need rescuing, shelter, food and water.

Before you can help the animals of a disaster, you must be able to help yourself first. Be sure to have a disaster plan in place for you, your family and your pets before you decide to get involved on a local or state level. Even if you have never worked with animals, you can help. Animal response teams need people who can gather owner information, take pictures of pets, organize supplies and put information into computer databases.

You can become involved on a local (town) level, state level or with a well-established independent organization that has relationships on local and state levels. If you are interested in helping animals during disasters, you should join a team. You may not be allowed to help unless you were a member prior to the disaster occurring.

Becoming involved with an animal disaster team isn’t for everyone. It can be mentally and physically exhausting to respond to a disaster. Most disaster responders will experience some post traumatic disorder symptoms and, because you may work in a dangerous environment, you may become injured. However, the feeling of helping to rescue or care for an animal is very rewarding, and that is why many people choose to volunteer and accept some level of risk. (more…)

I have been helping care for animals in disasters for over eight years now, and 9/11 was my first disaster. As a veterinary technician, I help to provide the medical care for the animals who are involved in a disaster.

Being involved in disasters has given me some of my worst moments in life as well as some of my best. I will never forget the pile of mangled and twisted steel at my feet that was once the World Trade Centers. I will never forget watching my tears hit the dusty ground in New York City. But I wouldn’t trade all of my sadness for the world because I also will never forget helping search and rescue dogs feel better so that they could go back to work.

I am now deeply involved in helping animals in disasters. Most recently, I have helped to create a response team within my own state that will help animals affected by disasters. I have spoken on the topic of disaster medicine and published articles. There are many lessons I have learned throughout the years, and I wanted to share just a few with all of you. (more…)

When I had signed up for a veterinary disaster team about 9 months before 9/11/01, I thought I was signing up to help animals in hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. A terrorist attack was not supposed to be my first deployment. Despite my fear of the unknown, I knew I had to go. Our mission was to help the search and rescue dogs. We would care for them and make sure they stayed healthy so they could keep searching. So, on 9/11/01 I left for New York City. The last image I saw of the twin towers was of them collapsing.

There was no way to prepare myself for the magnitude of what I saw. There I was, feeling so small and so unimportant, standing next to a pile of twisted steel and metal that use to be the World Trade Centers. The ground was so dusty, and I remember watching my tears hit and splatter the dust everywhere.

I spent two weeks at Ground Zero, and it changed my life. It was there that I had some of my best and worst moments. Despite all the hard work, sleepless nights and tears I had, I would do it all again. My team made sure those dogs stayed healthy so that they could keep working. Every day before and after they visited the pile they would come to us. Their owners would share with us their horrifying stories of what they had seen and we would comfort them by assuring them their four-legged partner was doing great. (more…)

Certainly no one wants to be caught in a disaster, but unfortunately they do happen. No matter where you live there is a potential for a disaster to occur. Let us never forget the residents of New York City who had left their pets while they went to work on September 11th, 2001. They certainly were not planning on a disaster.

It is important to be prepared, so if you do need to evacuate you are able to do so quickly and safely with your pets. To become prepared there are several steps you can take to protect your pets. (more…)

Congratulations on your new puppy! I bet your new puppy is very cute, very cuddly and very messy. Training your puppy to use the “outside” bathroom is a family effort. The length of time it takes for you to house-train your puppy is directly related to how well you supervise him.

How long your puppy can “hold it” is directly related to his age in months. A puppy can resist going to the bathroom for no longer than his age in months plus one. For example, a 4-month-old puppy can “hold it” about 4-5 hours, while a 6-month-old puppy can hold it 6-7 hours. Any more than that and your puppy will likely have an accident.

You will have to plan on getting up in the middle of the night to walk your new puppy and ensure your puppy is not left home alone for too long during the daytime. There are four main “rules” you must strictly follow in order to have success with house-training your puppy. (more…)