The International Animal Welfare Training Institute at the University of California (UC), Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has received $250,000 from the California Emergency Management Agency to assist the state in providing coordinated rescue and care of animals during natural disasters.

The agency grant will formalize a framework for emergency response and protocols at county and regional levels so that volunteers and emergency responders can be authorized to include animals in rescue and care during floods, fires or other disasters.

ANIMALS AND DISASTERS: A ROCKY HISTORY
In January 1997, rescue personnel accomplished one of California’s largest evacuation efforts, removing residents from flooded areas in the northern part of the state. Unfortunately, many animals were left behind. Volunteers tried to rescue horses or livestock, but law enforcement officials turned them back due to health and safety concerns.

After 200 dairy cows were lost in rising waters because personnel and trailers that could have saved the animals were sent away from the flooding, veterinarian John Madigan, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, a professor of veterinary medicine at the UC Davis, spearheaded an animal rescue effort. Over more than a week, accompanied by personnel from the California Department of Fish and Game, Madigan and other volunteers rescued horses and other animals in need of food, water, shelter and medical care