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911
for Large Animal Emergency Rescue
Dr. Rebecca Gimenez, Managing Editor
Equine and Bovine Magazine TM
What
are you to do if your horse trailer overturns on the
Interstate? What
can you do if your barn is burning and you hear the pitiful
screams of your animals caught inside?
What if your horse falls into the pool in the backyard?
In the litany of millions – CALL
911!!! The
Fire Department and Police emergency response teams are
trained to respond quickly to any emergency involving people.
But what if, despite their excellent equipment,
they don’t have the training to rescue your
animal from a tough situation – safely?
Over
the last 5 years here in the Southeast, firefighters,
policemen, animal control officers, and volunteer large animal
rescue groups have been getting the training to learn how to
respond efficiently and safely to these kind of accidents.
Accidents are more common as equestrians begin to live
in more urban environments and travel across the country with
their animals. Most individuals do not own the kind of
equipment that it takes to rescue a 1400 pound horse – but
the fire department already does!
What they have NOT had in the past was the training HOW
to use their equipment to safely extricate the animal, using
the resources they have. All of us have seen some of the rescue videos on Animal
Planet – in most of which they do manage to rescue the
animal. But in most cases, it could have been done better or in a
safer manner for man and beast.
Dr.
Tomas Gimenez and his wife, Dr. Rebecca Gimenez, representing
Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service and the
State of South Carolina Emergency Preparedness Division
through the SC Veterinarian’s Office, have been offering
this training to emergency responders for over 5 years now.
Their partners on the West Coast – Captain John Fox
and his wife Debra Fox of the Felton Fire District in
California – have gotten the curriculum for the training
accepted for statewide use in California, and offer similar
training to the states closer to them.
They are the official LART (Large Animal Rescue Team) trainers
for their respective states.
Over
200 individuals in fire and police departments, sheriff’s
and animal control offices, and organized volunteers have
attended the 1 and 2 day certified workshops offered in NC,
SC, GA, TN and California.
Attendees receive classroom theory and hands-on
practice in how to respond to overturned trailers, animals in
holes, pools or open sewers, barn fires, trailer wrecks,
animals loose on the highway, trapped in various nasty places,
or hurt on the trail – miles from vehicular access.
They practice using Dr. Gimenez’s own Tennessee
Walking Horses and a llama – who are trained to lie down,
get tied up, pulled, strapped down, and lifted in several
different types of slings in simulated rescues.
Occasionally,
these LART Trainers give demonstrations to thousands of
individual horse and cattle owners at arenas, shows, and fairs
to spread the word about disaster preparedness, mitigation,
and response issues that directly affect animal owners.
Here, individuals learn how to prepare a disaster plan
for their property, how to work in concert with their local
fire departments to teach them about horse behavior, and get
to see a demonstration of the correct equipment being used in
a simulated rescue.
For
more information about how you can encourage your local fire
and police department personnel to get this training, email
Dr. Gimenez at tgmnz@clemson.edu
or call (864) 656-5158.
If you are on the West Coast, call Captain Fox at jdfox@got.net
or (831) 335-3035.
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This is
"Son's Sancho", our trained simulated rescue
horse, who regularly allows us to truss him into the
Anderson Sling and do a vertical heavy lift as part of
the LART training in Davie County, NC earlier this
year. |
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 This
6 month old foal "Surprise Package" was unable
to rise after
surgery for a hoof injury - he spent 4 days in the
Anderson Sling and has recovered beautifully.
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