Disaster planning experts met Aug. 17 and 19 in San Diego, Calif., and at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine to set up a plan that includes animals in emergency response. Dozens of personnel from fire departments, animal control agencies, law enforcement, relief agencies and animal rescue groups reviewed and revised a document being drafted by the California Emergency Management Agency for its California Animal Emergency Response System, or CARES.

Communication among the many entities responding to a disaster is critical. Protocols for calling in specialized responders, including those that are designed to help animals, are essential. Reimbursement for agencies and organizations that come into a community during an event that crosses jurisdictions or goes beyond a specific location must also be arranged. The CARES document is designed to provide a standardized framework for complex emergency response operations.

Four counties that participated in a pilot project to examine and outline emergency response protocols sent representatives to the workshops to describe their experiences with disasters such as fires, and their approaches to improving response and communication in future. These four counties–Butte, Santa Clara, Fresno, and San Diego–are models to aid CARES organizers in developing potential templates and in designing appropriate training for agencies and non-governmental groups that may be called upon to help with animal rescue, transport and veterinarry care in the event of an emergency. Coordinating response for fire, flood or earthquake is a huge task for cities, counties, states and the federal government as they must keep in mind the dangers to individuals, pets, livestock, and rescue personnel.

Some messages from the meeting, however, were quite simple