emergency-animal-services.jpg

Not only is this a beautiful truck, but, the job it does is beautiful, also! This is the truck of the American Humane Emergency Animal Services program. The program was begun in 1916 to help the animals that were used by the United States Army in WWI.

Now they help with all sorts of national and international disasters, helping animals in need, and often humans, too. And now they have a whole fleet of vehicles that are fixed up just for the purpose of helping animals!

Here is a run-down of their amazing resources, as quoted from their site:

  • A roster of more than 100 readily deployable volunteers and 500 trained potential responders
  • American Humane’s “Rescue Rig” — 82-foot specialized tractor/trailer
    • Volunteer living accommodations — self-sustaining for 15 responders, stocked with 10 days’ supply of ready-to-eat meals
    • Command Center with electrical generator, a VHF base radio and handhelds, satellite dish uplink and downlink capability, computer and planning support capabilities
    • Basic veterinary surgery capability
    • Heavy gear storage
  • Urban search, rescue and assistance equipment
  • Flood search, rescue and assistance equipment
  • Technical rescue equipment — rope and high-angle rescue systems, swift-water rescue systems
  • Fleet of 4WD support vehicles

That’s totally awesome! Wouldn’t it have been great, though, to have seen this truck and the fleet of other vehicles, driving up to New Orleans, during those fateful first days of the disaster? I’m just talking about those images we saw on TV, of the people, holding their dogs in their coats, or on their rooves - it was so sad. I don’t even pretend to know about the politics of it all, so there is no way on Earth that I would even begin to complain about the Humane Society, as I know a lot of services did get out there in the following days - my mother was among them. I’m just saying in those first few days, as we watched on TV, it would’ve been cool - and comforting - and inspiring - and heartwarming to see a big truck like this drive in.

Anyway, I was on their site this morning, because, my mother had sent me a link to one of the pages on their site. On the page she sent me, they were discussing two new laws that just went into affect in Texas on September 1st, in regards to animal cruelty.

It looks like these new laws might help Mercy, the dog who was horribly tortured by two teenagers in Dallas last year. Or maybe I’m reading it wrong and the laws had to be laws when the crimes were committed. And there is another blurb about teens hurting a dog last month in Dallas, as well.

Well, I’m glad these laws have been passed, anyway. And I will blog more about the two cases of these teens as I hear more about it from my mother. She is hoping to get to go to the trial for the perpetrator of Mercy. And I’m sure she’ll keep me updated on that.

I was excited, though, to see a truck that I can feel absolutely free to love!