Trucks bring message of animal protection

The American Humane Association and Animal Planet team up to help animals in disaster situations and to educate the public.

By CHRISTINA K. COSDON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 3, 2002

In the days after the World Trade Center attack, rescue and recovery dogs and their handlers got medical aid, food and a place to rest in the American Humane Association/Animal Planet Rescue vehicle on Staten Island.

The American Humane Association team also worked in the city to bring supplies and equipment to Federal Emergency Management Agency rescue teams. The New York Police Department's canine unit helped retrieve more than 600 pets that were lost, hurt or left behind in the rush to evacuate neighborhoods near the devastated area.

Then this summer in Show Low, Ariz., AHA teams rescued more than 500 animals, ranging from cats to a baby elk, affected by the area's wildfires.

When Animal Planet Rescue's 82-foot-long semitrailer truck isn't working disasters, it's on the road for education.

Traveling with it around the country is the Animal Planet Expo semitrailer truck, which entertains while sending a message of pet care and disaster planning that includes family pets.

Come October, the rigs will roll into Clearwater and spend three days at Coachman Park.

The Expo's purpose "is to bring awareness and to have fun -- to celebrate the fact that humans and animals share a big bond," said Ben Drotar, director of the American Humane Association's Red Star Emergency Services, which staffs and operates the disaster relief program sponsored by Animal Planet.

"Sixty percent of families in the U.S. have a companion animal and usually they have more than one," Drotar said. "These are family members and there are millions out there."

On its first day in town, Oct. 4, the rescue truck's staff offers a free Animals in Disaster seminar for area animal shelter staffs, veterinarians, emergency management personnel, rescue professionals and rescue-trained volunteers.

On Oct. 5 and 6, the trucks will be open to the public.

Animal Planet Expo includes:

Animal Planet Theatre -- which shows animal rescue videos, and has special sound and visual effects.

Animal House Tent, in which visitors can meet animals up close and talk with their handlers.

KidZone offers face painting, arts and crafts and a bungee run.

E-Vet Clinic, where visitors can bring pets for massages and a chat with Dr. Holly Knor of Animal Planet's Emergency Vets, a documentary-style show that portrays the life-and-death stories of the animals brought to Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver.

Discovery Family Center, in which showgoers can create digital photos of themselves in an exotic location or adventurous pose.

Animals Front and Center, featuring demonstrations of animal rescue, dog agility, fly-ball, flying disk and obedience. There also is an Animal Planet trivia contest.

The public also may tour the rescue rig.

The custom-built, two-level unit contains a veterinary clinic, high-tech communications center, four-wheel drive ambulance, 14-foot boat, three inflatable watercraft, kitchen, air-conditioned sleeping accommodations for 12, kennels for service dogs and equipment ranging from mechanical devices for high and low angle rescue to harnesses for rescuing injured animals.

The vehicle's self-contained design is a result of AHA rescue workers' experiences during nearly two months work in 1992 in Hurricane Andrew-devastated south Florida. They found no vehicles or motel rooms to rent, no telephone or electrical service, and no drinking water or sanitation facilities. Animals of all types, from cows to monkeys, ran loose. They had no place to keep those rescued.

Local coordinators of the two-day public event include Clearwater; SPCA of Pinellas County; members of the Bay Area Disaster Animal Response Team, a five-county team based at the SPCA; and the Humane Society of North Pinellas.

In 1998 Animal Planet teamed up as a corporate partner with the American Humane Association, sponsoring the rescue vehicle and animal relief program.

The AHA was established in 1877 to prevent violence, abuse and neglect of children and animals. That mission remains unchanged.

Through the years, the AHA has helped the Army's artillery and cavalry horses; aided the mules and dogs used for carrying supplies, munitions and messages on the battlefields of World War I; and has become a leader in disaster-related animal rescue.

For more than 60 years, the AHA's film and television unit has worked in Hollywood to ensure than actors are safe and that "no animal was harmed."

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