http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_469930.html

By Jennifer Reeger
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, September 11, 2006

Across Pennsylvania, a new type of disaster-response team is being formed.

While firefighters, paramedics and police focus on rescuing people from a fire or flood, these volunteers set their sights on an often-forgotten lot: animals.

The Pennsylvania State Animal Response Team was formed in 2005 as a nonprofit entity that will serve as the emergency management agency for pets and farm animals.

County teams are being started to come up with disaster plans and find local volunteers willing to help.

"Local emergencies really require a local response," said Joel Hersh, executive director of the state team. "We thought that each county would be able to support a volunteer team that would then be available to local officials when they had animal issues as part of any event or disasters they were trying to deal with."

Only 15 counties in the state -- including Beaver, Fayette and Greene in Western Pennsylvania -- have not begun work toward a team.

Hersh said the idea for this type of response came after a group representing state government, universities and veterinary medicine got together to discuss what to do with animals in the event of a disaster.

North Carolina spearheaded the movement after Hurricane Floyd killed about 3 million animals -- pets and livestock -- in 1999.

"Since Pennsylvania is a major flooding state ... it was kind of one of these things that should have happened a while ago," Hersh said.

He said each county team is made up of local volunteers. Training will be offered by the state team; a session on rescuing large animals was conducted this summer in Indiana County.

Each county team will come up with its own animal-response plan, which will be part of the county's overall emergency plan.

"We only go out if county 911 asks for our help because we want it to be part of that routine, integrated response," Hersh said.

County volunteers will work with emergency management officials and disaster response agencies on how to deal with animals. The goal is to have animal shelters set up next to human shelters so people who leave their homes can care for their own animals.

"It's so good to know you can check into a Red Cross shelter and your dog is right across the street," said Patricia McKenty, a state Department of Agriculture milk sanitarian in Shaler, who is coordinating Allegheny County's team.

Teams in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties are just in the infancy stages, working on finding volunteers, organizing lists of experts, writing emergency plans and training.

Indiana County's team is about to complete its emergency plan.

"We will then become active," said Kathi Elder, the team's information officer. "We will be able to legitimately respond to incidents or disasters that are dealing with anything not defined as wildlife. That could be an accident on the road, a natural disaster, a fire."

Team members from all three counties attended a training session in Cookport, Indiana County, over the summer. Trainers practiced with a mock accident involving an overturned animal trailer.

"We've had it happen once with 130 cows on the turnpike," said Elaine Gower, Westmoreland County humane officer and a coordinator of the county's Animal Response Team.

The teams are still looking for volunteers, but McKenty warned that people shouldn't join simply because they like animals.

"This isn't a game," she said. "It's deadly serious."

Many pets died or were separated from their owners during Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina sort of tore everybody's heart out," McKenty said.

The volunteers said part of their goal is not only to respond to incidents but also to inform people they need to prepare themselves and their animals for a disaster.

"That's our first line of defense -- people able to help their own pets until we can help them," Gower said.

Jennifer Reeger can be reached at jreeger@tribweb.com or (724) 836-6155.