Noah's Wish: Disaster Relief for Animals

Imagine an earthquake where your horse is trapped in a twisted barn. Imagine a flash flood after a deluge of rain with your horse wading up to his knees in rushing water filled with skin-slicing debris. Imagine a wild forest fire raging toward your community. Imagine a lightning storm, blizzard, drought, explosion, tornado, terrorist attack, train derailment, chemical or biological or oil spill. Imagine you and your horse caught suddenly, unprepared, in harmıs way. What would you do?

After speed-dialing 911, more and more people are reaching out to Noah's Wish, an organization dedicated solely to keeping animals alive in times of disaster. Formed in March 2002 and headquartered in California, this single-focused, non-profit organization believes that animals need and deserve an organized, consistent, and professionally managed national disaster relief program to protect them from neglect or human indifference when a crisis strikes. The organization has been so dynamic in its first two years that it established a presence in western Canada when it helped to save and care for animals during last summer's wildfires in the British Columbia interior.

"Since 1983, I've worked in animal rescue in 48 disasters, including fires, floods, earthquakes, storms, and terrorist attacks," explained Terri Crisp, founder of Noah's Wish. "My first disaster was a flood in the San Francisco Bay area. I realized (then) that humane societies didn't have a disaster plan and it took way too long to get out and save animals."

Ms. Crisp continued to work for various humane societies until she put her knowledge and field-tested experience to work and launched Noah's Wish. The organization now has a full-time staff of two, a part-time administrator and 31 coordinators across the United States who have a combined experience with over 100 disasters. In addition, there are four coordinators in British Columbia and two in Alberta drawing on a rich volunteer base.

"The demand for our service continues to increase because we are the only national (and international) organization that focuses on disaster planning for animals," added Ms. Crisp.

Volunteers are always needed but to be one for Noah's Wish requires a three-day in-field training session designed to give participants experience in what they would encounter in a real disaster. Training sessions are conducted in locations where a temporary shelter can be set up and animals from local owners or shelters are brought in to simulate situations and give the volunteers hands-on experience. Following initial training, all volunteers go through an annual refresher course. In an actual disaster, Noah's Wish coordinates itself with local rescue agencies and services. Their team sets up the day-to-day operation of an emergency evacuation shelter where rotation of local volunteers is organized to provide the necessary care for the animals coming and going.

For all the help that Noah's Wish can provide, getting ahead of a disaster event with your own preparedness plan is essential. Unfortunately, it's something too few horse owners pay attention to. Most of us, with busy day-to-day lives and schedules, don't expect disaster, nor do we want it to happen. Most people think they live in a pretty safe spot so the idea of spending time and money on disaster preparedness tends to get back-shelved. It's what Terri Crisp calls procrastination or, worse, denial. But ask yourself if you are ready to deal with any of the following scenarios:

• If you are injured in a disaster and can't take care of yourself, whoıs going to take care of your animals?
• If you are issued an evacuation order to leave immediately, can you immediately transport your animals out? Do you know where they will go?
• Where will your animals go if your house and barn are burned or flooded?
• If your horses escape in the panic of a fire, do you know what to do and how to help others identify them?
• If you are trapped at home in a blizzard and the power is out, do you have enough stored food, water, and pet and/or livestock feed for at least five days?

A disaster event promises two things: it is unexpected; it can kill. Given the track record of climate change in at least the past ten years, we've been faced with more extremes of weather than most of us can remember. In recent years, weıve grappled with firestorms, severe blizzards, prolonged drought and heat, torrential rains and flash floods, all of which are harbingers of disastrous consequences -- destroyed buildings, devastated land, washed out roads and bridges stranding residents and their animals, and power outages crippling emergency services.

To help you get up to speed on a disaster plan, the web sites of both Noahıs Wish www.noahs-wish.org and Horse Council BC www.horsecouncilbc.com have comprehensive disaster preparedness guidelines. They include long range planning, advanced planning, horse identification (both on the horse and in records) prior to evacuation, and checklists that cover veterinary needs, an identification kit, personal emergency kit, feed and supplies. Following the firestorms in the BC Interior last summer, eventer Sarah Bradley wrote an excellent personal experience article about emergency evacuation in the September 2003 issue of this magazine -- check it out.

Given the recent experiences with natural disasters, there is an increasing demand for help for animals from Noahıs Wish. If you would like to become a volunteer, you can apply to attend one of three Canadian-based three-day training sessions. They are being held May 28-30 in Vancouver, BC, September 3-5 in Kelowna, BC, and September 10-12 in Winnipeg, MB. You can obtain more information from their web site, or contact Horse Council BC. Remember, failure to plan is planning to fail. Be there, with a plan, for your horse and precious pets.

Read Margaret Evans' column "In The Shadow Of Equus" each month in The Pacific & Prairie Horse Journal