Initially funded through a National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) 2013 grant, Emergency Pet Sheltering for Volunteers was developed for Massachusetts Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Volunteers. The original collaborators included David J. Schwartz, D.V.M. from the State of Massachusetts Animal Resource Team (SMART), Lisa C. Kaufman, ATR-BC, LADC1 a Behavioral Health, Emergency Planning Consultant who was then employed as a Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Region 5 Planner, a MDPH Region 5 MRC Unit, and a local Animal Control Officer. The 2-part trainings, Level 1 and Level 2, were developed to:
- Fill a training gap for volunteers responding to emergency/disaster shelter events.
- Provide a standardized set of skills for the safety of the volunteers and the pets in an emergency/disaster shelter situation.
- Create a cache of volunteers who are trained with standardized, identifiable emergency/disaster pet sheltering skill sets.
- David and Lisa recently collaborated again. Focusing on current best practices, they brought the trainings up to date, and have made them available to all volunteers who may find themselves deployed during an emergency/disaster sheltering event. The overview addresses the history of Emergency/Disaster Pet Sheltering, key training objectives of the 2-part series, where Volunteers fit into planning and response, and some fundamental elements of both the Level 1 and Level 2 trainings.
Presented by Lisa C. Kaufman, LADC1, ATR-BC
Behavioral Health, Emergency Planning Consultant
Assistant Coordinator, Duxbury Bay Area Regional Medical Reserve Corps
