Serving Those That Serve
One of our primary missions is supporting search-and-rescue units.
- These specially trained dogs and horses work tirelessly to save the lives of humans in distress.
- We are an important partner in keeping these valuable team members able to tackle their assignments by:
- Performing pre-deployment examinations,
- Ensuring that injuries and dehydration are identified; and
- Treating any medical issues these animals may have in a timely manner.
Expertise in Search-and-Rescue Canine Care
VET Director Dr. Deb Zoran is one of a handful of Incident Support Team (IST) veterinarians in the United States. During the wildfires in Oregon in 2020, she was charged with the care of 12 urban search-and-rescue (USAR) dogs that were deployed in the response effort.
As the only veterinarian on-site, her job was to ensure the safety and well-being of the USAR canines, which were flown in from all over the nation. USAR dogs are either specifically trained to detect missing people who are still alive (“live find”), or to find the bodies of the deceased, called human remains detection. On this deployment, Zoran was working with the latter, who were searching the rubble of burned homes destroyed by the fast-moving fires.
Over the course of the deployment, Zoran’s emergency management skills and experience were put to the test: Because of the unique challenges of an active fire response, one of the teams ran out of the bandage material necessary to protect the dogs’ feet.
“Fires are obviously really dangerous,” she said. “Normally, it is best not to place bandages on dogs’ feet because they use their feet to grip when they’re working on rubble or they’re climbing terrain. But, when there’s an active fire, and the burned-out structures may still be exceptionally hot, or they must search areas that may still have active hot spots, the dogs’ feet need protection that is best provided with specially constructed bandaging.”
The USAR dogs needing bandage changes several times a day created a bandage shortage, but Zoran’s experience in the logistics and command side of response proved valuable, and she was able to quickly utilize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resource request system to get more supplies on the ground.
Having someone with her experience is typically a rarity for USAR teams, which is something Zoran has been at the forefront of trying to change.
“My opinion is that there should be a veterinarian, or a veterinary technician, at least, anytime a US&R team deploys their canines into a disaster environment,” she said. “Each team deploys a paramedic, so if a team member gets injured, there’s somebody there in the event of injury.
“But that’s not true for the working dogs, except in a few specific cases like Texas A&M Task Force 1, for example,” she said. “One of my goals is to help change the system to make sure a veterinarian or vet tech is on each team; my other goal is to be sure that those dogs and those teams are supported when they’re in the mission.”