The Alberta Farm Animal Care’s Emergency Response trailer was pressed into service on Thursday after a massive one-hundred plus vehicle pile-up on the QE-II south of Edmonton, which left several dozen head of cattle in distress.

AFAC Board Chair Heini Hehli tells Rural Roots Canada the ER trailer was ready to respond to the situation.

“It’s always sad when you have an accident, but that huge pile-up they had on Highway Q-E II on Thursday involved a number of cattle trailers and one I believe had cattle in it,” says Hehli.  “So the new Emergency Response unit was deployed from Ponoka to assess the situation and deal with the one trailer that had animals in it.    The animals were unloaded, confined and taken care of.  It worked just perfectly. “

About 60 head of cattle were believed to have been in the cattle liner.

Around 100 people were injured in the chain reaction crash, with 22 being taken to hospital, only one suffering serious injuries.

A small fleet of emergency response trailers were officially unveiled at the end of November.   They are stationed across the province in the MD of Willowcreek – Claresholm; Cypress County – Medicine Hat; Westlock County –Westlock; Vermilion River County – Vermilion; and the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), also has one which will deploy an Alberta-wide roaming unit.

A training course for firefighters who attend scenes where livestock are in distress is delivered at Lakeland College’s Emergency Training Centre in Vermillion.

Related: AFAC ER Trailers Unveiled