Teams Help Shelter, Rescue Animals in California

The HSUS/Kathy Milani

The HSUS's Scott Wilson helps evacuate a goat near  San Diego, Calif.

 By Barry Kellogg

The HSUS Disaster Services team has ramped up its response to the wildfire emergency in southern California, operating around the clock to rescue, shelter, and provide veterinary care to hundreds of animals.

What follows are the most current details from responders on the ground:

• The Disaster Vehicle (which serves as the command center and mobile veterinary clinic) has arrived in San Diego.
  
  
• Twenty staff members and 10 National Disaster Animal Response Team (NDART) volunteers—with significant experience handling and caring for large animals—have been deployed and continue to report to the disaster team's base camp in San Diego.
  
  Additional teams are arriving Thursday evening, and The HSUS Northern Rockies Regional Office response team are in route from the base in Billings, Mont.
  
  
• Operating under the command and control of San Diego Animal Services, responders are currently coordinating and providing support for large animal sheltering at QUALCOMM Stadium, Fiesta Island, and Gillespie Field.
  
  All food and water needs are being met at the temporary shelters, and the local community is generously providing much of the necessary staffing. There is still a need for additional horse equipment. Team members approximate that 80 percent of the sheltered animals are owned.
  
  The team is also conducting general search and rescue activities and responding to specific search and rescue requests in the Kit Carson Park area, as well as in the immediate outlying areas.

This report was last updated October 25, 2007 at 2 p.m. EST.

Dr. Barry Kellogg is acting director of disaster services for The HSUS.