When severe weather strikes the community it isn't only the human population that's impacted, the animals there face the very same concerns and issues at people, and that's one of the primary moments when our EARS Team is ready to roll! Tuesday's storms tore across the state with widespread damage, but six areas were hit harder than others, leading to power and utility loss, structural damage, down tress and wires, flooding, and many roads that were completely blocked. Almost immediately our organization began receiving calls both from human emergency departments as well as veterinary hospitals that were facing animal incidents ranging from rescue and sheltering needs, to medical transport of patients, and like many other response services we called for "all hands on deck" and prepared to respond as needed.
Over Tuesday night, even as the rain continued, members of our team were dispatched for assistance in four locations for animal situations. In addition to the residential areas that lost power and accessibility, there were also businesses suffering the same, and among those included veterinary hospitals. As it became clearer on Wednesday afternoon that cleanup would take several days at best and those hospitals would potentially be without power for that time, there was a major increase in requests for our services to help get pets from general practice hospitals to veterinary emergency centers like VCA Shoreline in Shelton, which were open and operational despite the weather conditions.
As of Friday evening the EARS Team dispatched to 17 storm-related calls, which ranged from simple assistance getting pets transported to other homes, to search and rescue scenarios, to 5 critical medical transports for pets that required surgery but were unable to have it done at their home vets due to the utility losses. Any community impact like this can be overwhelming, long-lasting, and leave many people frightened and concerned for what will happen if their animals need help during this time, but you can rest assured... that's exactly what EARS is here for! Our team plans, prepares, and practices for responding to situations like this throughout the year. We are fully equipped and always ready to roll no matter what the conditions are!
Thank you to reporter Sean Mccabe from News 12 for being eager to come film a segment about our response, and to the staff and doctors at VCA Shoreline in Shelton for being involved with it and always supporting our mission of helping pets in need!
Over Tuesday night, even as the rain continued, members of our team were dispatched for assistance in four locations for animal situations. In addition to the residential areas that lost power and accessibility, there were also businesses suffering the same, and among those included veterinary hospitals. As it became clearer on Wednesday afternoon that cleanup would take several days at best and those hospitals would potentially be without power for that time, there was a major increase in requests for our services to help get pets from general practice hospitals to veterinary emergency centers like VCA Shoreline in Shelton, which were open and operational despite the weather conditions.
As of Friday evening the EARS Team dispatched to 17 storm-related calls, which ranged from simple assistance getting pets transported to other homes, to search and rescue scenarios, to 5 critical medical transports for pets that required surgery but were unable to have it done at their home vets due to the utility losses. Any community impact like this can be overwhelming, long-lasting, and leave many people frightened and concerned for what will happen if their animals need help during this time, but you can rest assured... that's exactly what EARS is here for! Our team plans, prepares, and practices for responding to situations like this throughout the year. We are fully equipped and always ready to roll no matter what the conditions are!
Thank you to reporter Sean Mccabe from News 12 for being eager to come film a segment about our response, and to the staff and doctors at VCA Shoreline in Shelton for being involved with it and always supporting our mission of helping pets in need!