WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, November 17, 2018 — American Humane, the country’s first national humane organization, which has been helping animals in disasters for more than 100 years, is deploying its rescue team and giant 50-foot animal emergency vehicle to aid animals displaced by the deadly Camp Fire in California.
American Humane’s newest deployment, which follows on the heels of major rescue and sheltering operations for animals caught in the wake of Hurricanes Florence and Michael, was officially requested by The Red Cross Gold Country Region supporting the Butte County Region. A rescue team of nine responders including a veterinarian is being moved into position at the Butte County Fairgrounds in Gridley, California, 30 miles south of Chico. They will be joined shortly by one of American Humane’s specially equipped animal emergency vehicles, which will travel more than 400 miles from its strategic geographic base in Los Angeles.
The American Humane team will be assisting The Red Cross with a co-location shelter for displaced families with their animals. The Red Cross will set up sheltering accommodations and services for the human shelter, and American Humane will set up sheltering accommodations for approximately 100 animals. American Humane will provide assistance to owners to help care for their pets of the Red Cross clients that come into the human shelter and maintain the animal shelter side of the operation. The public should note that at this point the shelter will not be working on an open admission basis for animals without owners.
American Humane salutes how rescue groups, Butte County Animal Control, NVADG, and the community have come together to provide lifesaving assistance for each other and the pets.
“This is a life-threatening disaster for both people and animals, and the danger is not over,” says American Humane President and CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert. “Pets are part of our families and American Humane is on the scene to help keep these families safe and healthy together. We are grateful to those generous people who are sending in donations to help us help our best friends in their worst times, and to those who made it possible to have vitally necessary lifesaving equipment and supplies at the ready, including philanthropist Lois Pope and the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation, Banfield Foundation, and Zoetis Petcare, which generously donates critical medicines and veterinary supplies for our animal emergency vehicles. Our deepest gratitude to all of you!”
About American Humane and the American Humane Rescue program
American Humane is the country’s first national humane organization, founded in 1877. The American Humane Rescue program has been involved in virtually every major relief effort during the past 100 years, starting in World War I when we rescued and cared for 68,000 war horses wounded each month on the battlefields of Europe, the Great Ohio Flood of 1937, Pearl Harbor, Hurricane Katrina, the terror attacks on 9/11, the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, Superstorm Sandy, the tornadoes in Joplin and Oklahoma, the Louisiana and West Virginia floods, the California and Tennessee wildfires, and most recently, Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, Irma, Florence and Michael.
To support American Humane’s rescue efforts, please visit www.americanhumane.org/wildfire-relief
