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When Mari Donovan (Lead Coordinator for Noah's Wish) left for Minot (North Dakota), she knew she was making history. Yes, she was deploying for animal disaster response, but, no, there was no contingent of trained Noah's Wish volunteers to accompany her to take care of all the evacuated pets and their owners. The only Royal Blue shirt in Minot was going to be hers. Mari was doing something unusual: as a lone ranger she was bringing Noah's Wish renowned expertise in Emergency Animal Sheltering (EAS) and Animal Search and Rescue to a group of spontaneous "untrained" volunteers. The State of North Dakota had asked Noah's Wish to do this.
Over the last couple of years national national animal rescue organizations have learned to stand by, waiting for the call to deploy. The call rarely came, especially for disasters. Many national organizations (HSUS, AHA, UAN/EARS/Red Rover) started using seizures of animals from hoarders, or in animal cruelty cases as the main training ground for their volunteers. Interesting (and necessary) as this may be, these controlled environments are not really a good preparation for disaster response. But it is easier to get called out for this, especially because in the period leading up to a seizure local animal control is reluctant to try to recruit local help, out of fear that the target may get wind of the upcoming activity. Recently, in Joplin, we have seen how the national organizations and their paid staff members are using disasters as yet another photo opportunity: they send a select few people with a camera crew to a major disaster. This has more to do with fundraising, donor dollars, public relations and marketing than with a desire to help with the demands of setting up and running an effective disaster animal shelter for the victims of these disasters.
For people observing real animal disaster response, there is an interesting new phenomenon where incident commanders are confronted with local volunteers who insist on 'helping the animals'. Sometimes these people are members of animal rescue groups. Incident commanders are happy that their problem (how can I handle all these displaced animals - and keep Anderson Cooper out of my face) can be solved by local resources. As a result they never get around to calling on 'the nationals' for help. Even if they have signed Memoranda of Understanding with some of the nationals.
In many ways, this is the best possible outcome: community members helping their own communities respond to and recover from a disaster. Disaster resilient communities should have enough volunteers and emergent organizations to address animal rescue and disaster response issues. And, of course, for the long haul they can always fall back on county, state, federal and national resources.
The dilemma for experienced disaster responders is that we know that managing an Emergency Animal Shelter is not as easy as people think. Unless the paperwork is impeccable, animals will get lost and leave with the wrong owner. Unless there are strict hygiene protocols disease outbreaks are inevitable, especially if the disaster last a long time. Handling animals, especially when they are stressed out, is a dangerous activity. How can we get the knowledge needed to do a professional job to these emergent animal emergency response teams?
Mari's role in Minot is one of the potential answers: send some of your best shelter managers over and let them do just-in-time training and provide direction for shelter management.
Will that be enough? I do not think so. In addition to having experienced emergency animal shelter managers available to deploy, we should have a system where we can deliver professional Emergency Animal Shelter training at short notice in a format that will reach the locals. Having a well-trained cohort on the ground (no matter how small), such as a DART, is, however, the key ingredient. If these elements can be combined, we might be on our way to an answer to this dilemma that will serve our communities.
I look forward to hearing Mari talk about her experience during the next DART Training, which begins on July 7 in Martinez.
