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Contributed
The Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team (CDART) is hosting a training course for working with animals in disasters on Feb. 6. The course is the “Introduction to Emergency Pet Services” and is the entry level course for working with CDART. During disasters, the more people who are trained to register incoming animals and to care for them during the emergency, the easier it is on pets and the people who love them.
CDART’s National Chairperson, Cheryl Rogers of New Westminster, will be the Trainer on this course and attendees should expect to learn protocols and procedures that govern emergency animal rescue in British Columbia. Training is based upon the same structure as the British Columbia Emergency Response Management System which includes Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance. CDART follows Incident Command and deployed through local authorities and/or ESS (Emergency Social Services), PEP (Provincial Emergency Program) and the Ministry of Agriculture.
After this full day training, volunteers are included as part of the CDART Okanagan Team with monthly meetings held in Kelowna. With the Glenrosa Fire and the Terrace Mountain Fire in West Kelowna last year, CDART is looking to double the number of volunteers they have in the Okanagan.
CDART is the emergency animal rescue division of Critteraid and volunteers have been working in disasters since the Garnet Fire of 1994 in Penticton. Critteraid’s “I Heart Animals Banquet” is going to be held the night before at the Penticton Lakeside and special guestroom rates are available for people attending either function. Dogs are welcome, of course.
To register, participants can call Deborah Silk at 250-493-9752 or email info@critteraid.org. The cost of the course is $35 per person and volunteers who have taken this training previously are welcome to attend at no cost but they still must register.
