The first Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue workshop in Olds, Alberta earlier this summer was such a success Alberta Farm and Animal Care is putting on three more in Leduc, Drumheller and Grande Prairie.
The workshop is conducted by Dr. Rebecca Gimenez, who does about 20 of these events a year in different parts of the world.
She says Alberta is a leader when it comes to preparing for livestock emergencies.
“Believe it or not Alberta is way ahead of the rest of Canada in many ways because you have livestock trailers that you can respond with that have cattle panels, you have people who have been trained in how to handle these animals and they know where to take them,” says Gimenez. “As well as bringing in the veterinarians who are going to be able to treat the animals after some incident.”
During the last session Gimenez says she received a lot of questions about how the people responding to emergencies need to interact with other organizations.
“So a veterinarian knows a lot about equine or bovine behaviour and medical concerns but doesn’t know how to plug into the incident command system which is how the fire service works, so if the fire service doesn’t know that the veterinarian lives in that particular area and can respond to that incident then there is no tie-in between the two of them. So trying to get that networking is one of the most important functions of this conference.”
AFAC’S Dr. Angela Greter says being able to bring Dr. Gimenez up here is a big deal.
“She’s been involved in this for a number of years. She’s written a text book on it and she’s taught it all over the world which is pretty fantastic,” says Greter. She is one of those speakers that is really engaging so she doesn’t just have a power point and read down through the slides. She actually has us come up and do demonstrations with her. We’ve been out in the parking lot doing some demos and that kind of stuff.
Case in point, the group at the last workshop burned bales out in the parking lot which allowed them to learn how to deal with the fire.
The three upcoming sessions will be held in Leduc on November 2 – 3; Drumheller on November 4 and 5. Dr. Giminez will be back for a third session in Grande Prairie next May 11 and 12.
To register or find out more click here.
