Massive floods in Bosnia and Serbia are the worst they have seen in 120 years. The world has been silent on this issue, in large part. In a place that is still struggling to recover from years of war, it's hard to comprehend the magnitude of this disaster. Understandably, the people in the affected regions have had little time or money to address the many thousands of animals affected by this disaster. Tens of thousands have died in landslides and floods, and thousands more are still in ... Read more »
disaster response
Pet Disaster Relief: How It Works (hint: don’t show up without calling first)
September is National Preparedness Month, according to FEMA. It's easy to see why. A lot of bad things happen in Mother Nature this time of year; Colorado the latest in a long series of national disasters to catch the eye of the nation. Few images are as evocative as that of a stranded animal, confused, petrified, and facing an uncertain fate while we sit in front of the TV and wonder, is anyone going to help him? How does animal rescue work? Katrina According to Kim Little, my Technical ... Read more »
Helping Animals in Moore
Every animal disaster is a little different than the one before. The infrastructure may be fairly intact, or devastated. Local roads to receive supplies may or may not be accessible. The presence of local organizations and their willingness to help plays a major role in what constitutes an appropriate response. That is a field that is hard to navigate each and every time since the landscape is constantly changing from one disaster to another. What doesn't change? Who needs help. Why we do ... Read more »
And then the rescuer drowned: Dumb Vet Tricks Part 5
Being set up in the house with all my computer equipment finally reassembled means I can do what I've been wanting to do for quite a while: fill you in on more of the disaster response trip I did with World Vets in Nicaragua. I think the last time I had left it, we had just spent a day in the classroom learning disaster response techniques and were about to put our skills to the test. Day 2 was the water course. I'm not the strongest swimmer, so this was the part I was a wee bit nervous ... Read more »
Wordless Wednesday: Rescue Me
I've tied more knots in things over the last two days than I have since suture week at vet school. Knot after knot after knot after knot. But we have to: it doesn't matter how brave your rescue attempt is or how fast you make it to the victim, if your knot bites it, so do you. So practice we did. I thought I would show you a couple of teaser pics from our water day. This is Bobby, our willing disaster victim. Bobby routinely tumbles into rivers, falls down cliffs, and needs to be lifted from ... Read more »
Disaster Response, Sandy, and Good People
It's been a rough week, right? I think everyone can pretty much agree with that. There has been an awful lot of awful going on. That being said, it's also been an earth-shattering shake-by-the-shoulders to everyone mired in the mud leading up to Tuesday's election that maybe it isn't the only thing in the world that matters. Oh yeah, there's an election tomorrow! I almost forgot. Amazing how quickly things become less important when people's lives are getting washed away on a large ... Read more »
