Developing Animal Emergency Response Team Class Information

For individuals interested in hosting a Developing an Animal Emergency Response Team class, the following requirements need to be met:

• Classroom facility capable of handling up to 50 students
• Indoor or outdoor fenced arena (weather specific)
• One to two live horses for hands-on demonstrations. Horse(s) should be quiet, used to being handled / crowds and strange environments.
• Heavy equipment for afternoon hands-on portion. This equipment must be able to lift a life-size equine rescue mannequin at least several inches off the ground. Examples of this equipment would be:
• Excavator
• Back-hoe
• Telehandler

For individuals attending the class, we strongly suggest the following:

• Folding / bag chair
• Leather gloves
• Close-toed shoes or boots
• Long pants – no shorts
• Lunch / snacks / hydration
• Weather appropriate clothing, ie warm clothes, sun glasses, sun screen etc.
• Hard had – if available

Suggestions for hosting agency:

• We suggest that you ask the students to bring their own bag lunch. It is an option to cater lunch, but can be cost prohibitive. The reason we try to have lunch on the grounds is to reduce the time for the lunch break. If all the students have to leave the facility, it will increase the lunch period and make it harder to bring everyone back together at the same time unless there are fast-food options that are very close.
• In our experience, it is generally appreciated by the students that coffee service is provided in the morning for the classroom portion.
• Please provide printed directions to the facility(s) with the invitation as well as a contact number for the day of the class.
• Please request students to register for class. This way we know approximately how many students to expect.

Suggested invitation list:

• County Emergency Management Directors and staff
• County Extension office employees
• Humane Society / Animal Control personnel
• Veterinarians and Vet hospital staff
• Board of Animal Health Veterinarians
• Red Cross volunteers
• Local Fire, Police, EMS personnel
• Any local professionals in the animal industry
• Veterinary students
• Search and Rescue / Mounted Posse groups
• 4-H leaders / members