Notification this month came to John Haven (director of Medical/Health Administration at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida) that he has been officially appointed as chair to the National Fire Protection Association Committee 1670’s new taskgroup on Animal Technical Rescue.

Why should we care? This is a huge leap forward for both the large and small animal technical rescue community in the United States. It indicates that the fire service is realizing that coalescing the standards, methods, tactics, and procedures for responding in an ICS manner to animal incidents with extrication that might require the specialty tools and methods of technical Rope and mechanical advantage, Swiftwater, confined space, trench, etc. forms of heavy rescue applied to a scenario with an animal involved (large or small). It shows that efforts on many fronts by professionals in a variety of areas related to animals is paying off by the NFPA taking this new direction so seriously