Program to help rescue animals

A new emergency program will help rescue animals and livestock during disasters in California, according to UC Davis.

The California Veterinary Emergency Team will support and train government agencies, individuals and organizations to help domestic animals and livestock during emergencies. The teams will be managed by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

UC Davis’s Veterinary Emergency Response Team helped more than 1,500 animals during the Camp Fire in 2018.

The goal of the new team is to “increase response capacity and help standardize disaster response across counties.”

The state-funded program will receive $3 million a year under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The legislation was written by Sen. Steve Glazer of Contra Costa County.

“Recent wildfires have overwhelmed the state’s ability to safely evacuate and care for household animals and livestock,” Glazer said in a statement. “Twice 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,” he said.

Managing evacuation centers and care of animals during emergencies is currently being handled by the California Animal Response Emergency System within the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

According to a release from UC Davis, between disasters, volunteers will be recruited and veterinarian students will be trained on practices in shelter and emergency medicine.

The California Veterinary Emergency Team is expected to be in an organizational phase during this year’s fire season.