County Animal Response Team Forms- CART

County Animal Response Team Forms- CART

County Animal Response Teams (CART) are now forming to serve the following counties in Ohio and Indiana: Dearborn, Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont. Future expansion to other tri-state counties is expected as the number of teams grows.

A CART will respond when activated by the county Emergency Manager (or other government official.) Our job will be to rescue and care for animals that are affected by any local man-made or natural disaster or emergency.


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Possible disasters include, but are not limited to: severe winter storms, extended power outage, tornados, floods, fires, chemical spills, disease outbreak, civil unrest, evacuations and terrorist acts.

The animals that could be affected include: dogs and cats (pets and strays), horses, livestock, exotic animals, and wildlife. Second Chance wildlife is available to take care of the wild animals; the CART will care for the rest of the affected animals.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? First, please be sure you have plans and supplies ready for yourself and the animals in your care. Many disasters and emergencies happen suddenly. If you are not prepared in advance, you will require the assistance of various agencies. It is likely that it will take a few days for these agencies to get in place and organized, which means you are on your own until that happens (this could take days.) It is likely that the agencies will be overloaded with calls for help, which will further delay the speed of assistance to some people. If you can care for yourself and your animals during the first several days after a disaster, this helps reduce the impact of a disaster on you, your animals and the community. All CART members must have their own plans and supplies in place for their family and animals.



Ø JOIN US! There are many ways you can help the CART team in your county (or on a tri-state level):

Ø Team Captains are needed in each county (the team Captain is the lead person for the CART of that county and oversees the whole team)
Ø Team Lieutenants are needed in each county (this person will help the team captain and take over their duties if the captain is not available)
Ø Animal Sheltering and Care Team leader and members (these people will help the animals once they reach a temporary shelter)
Ø Animal Rescue Team Leader and members (these people will be most involved with the actual rescues and will need extensive training)
Ø Human Resources Team leader and members (these people manage the members of the county team)
Ø Logistics Team Leader and members (Logistics handles all the “stuff” – equipment, communications, resources, etc.)

Ø A host of volunteer opportunities exist. Some require extensive involvement while others would only be needed during a disaster or emergency.


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Join the Yahoo talk list to remain informed:http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/DisasterResponse and check the files at that website for lots of additional information. This is also where announcements of meetings and training opportunities will be posted.



Be ready… Have a plan and have the supplies you and the animals in your care need to survive without power for up to 5 days. Also prepare an evacuation kit and know where your animals can go if there is an emergency.

Dearborn Count Team Captain

Chris Puls (513)313-5113
dogscouts@hotmail.com