Firefighters get equipment to resuscitate pets
Animal lovers take heart: Montreal firefighters can now resuscitate dogs, cats or even hamsters and ferrets, in the event of a fire.
On Friday, the union representing Montreal firefighters announced it will donate 100 animal survival kits to the Montreal Fire Department to help save the lives of animals during emergency calls.
Association des pompiers de Montréal president Ronald Martin explained the kits will allow firefighters to make a big difference not only with animals, but also the lives of their owners.
“When you have a young child who has lost everything, but you’re able to save the life of his or her animal, imagine what a difference that can make,” Martin said. “Before these kits, we often would arrive on the scene of a fire and find unconscious pets and we wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
The kits, which cost about $100 each, come with three masks in different sizes, to fit large dogs to small rodents. They also come with hoses to attach the masks to oxygen tanks that firefighters already carry on their trucks. The fire union is making the $10,000 donation using funds from its budget, Martin said.
The kits will be distributed to fire trucks throughout the island starting next week.
Martin explained that firefighters will try to resuscitate animals that they find at fire scenes if they are unconscious, but they will not give CPR to animals whose hearts have stopped. They also won’t respond to calls of animals in distress, he said.
Michel Pepin, a veterinarian who was present at Friday’s announcement, said animals don’t always escape a fire as quickly as humans, so he believes the lives of many animals can be saved with this initiative.
“We have seen it work very quickly,” he said. “Last week a fire department adopted these kits and was able to save 60 kittens trapped in a building the next day.”
Before these kits, we often would arrive on the scene of a fire and find unconscious pets and we wouldn’t be able to do anything.