Hurricane Harvey

(Image courtesy of National Weather Service)

Best Friends’ disaster response team is deploying to Texas to rescue stranded animals, deliver supplies to hard-hit shelters, transport displaced shelter pets and support emergency sheltering efforts.

Best Friends volunteers, especially those with animal-handling experience, will be notified in the coming days of specific needs and how to support our work or that of our partners as soon as the situation on the ground warrants.

Best Friends staffers John Garcia and Meg Burke are a certified Type 1 rescue team, which means that they are qualified to accompany human search and rescue teams in order to handle the associated animal situations that arise. They are qualified in swift-water, flat-water, high-angle and trench rescue and they will also engage in direct ASAR (animal search and rescue) work. John and Meg are deploying with Code-3 Associates out of Longmont, Colorado, a professional animal disaster rescue and response organization with 32 years of experience in disaster response and specialized training. Together they will constitute the most highly qualified and best-equipped animal rescue strike force in Hurricane Harvey’s impact area.

In addition to John and Meg, a team of Best Friends staff led by Marc Peralta and Tawny Hammond will arrive in Texas starting tomorrow to begin delivering emergency supplies, and transporting animals.

We know from prior experience, especially from our work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that it will take days and perhaps weeks to be able to fully assess the extent of the physical damage and the scope of the impact on the animals caught in this devastating situation.

Best Friends has opened our disaster response reserve fund to help in these efforts. If you want to support Best Friends’ emergency response to Hurricane Harvey, we encourage you to contribute to it now. Every penny of your gift today will be spent on Hurricane Harvey and the recovery efforts to help reunite pets with families, help animals turned into shelters find homes, and help the Houston area rescue groups and shelters rebuild and recover.

Please keep our team and all those affected by this tragedy in your thoughts and keep up with our latest reports on Best Friends’ Facebook page.

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Francis Battista
Co-founder
Best Friends Animal Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CommentsI I know I have some areas such as schools and the work place … by TAUNIA OUSLEYMary, We’d love if you could contact our Planned Giving team … by Melissa MillerAll, Thanks so much for the outpouring of support you’ve … by Melissa MillerHi Melody, Please email HarveyVol@bestfriends.org to express … by Melissa MillerHi Eileen, If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and … by Melissa MillerPlus 5 more…

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Best Friends Animal Society

Best Friends is a nonprofit organization building no-kill programs and partnerships nationwide, all coordinated from our Kanab, Utah headquarters - the largest no-kill sanctuary for homeless companion animals.

At the core of our work is the dream that one day kindness will replace cruelty, and animals will no longer be destroyed because they are unwanted or imperfect. Spaying and neutering will be the rule for all pets and adoption from local animal shelters and rescues will be the first option for everyone. Those same shelters and rescues will have the knowledge and resources to help rehabilitate special-needs animals and find the right family for every animal.

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