The first three Equine Guelph’s Large Animal Emergency Rescue awareness level workshop webinars launched this year sold out quickly! A fourth date has been announced for April 28 in response to the huge demand for this important knowledge.
First responders practicing lifting horse from large hole in ground
Education, awareness, and planning are key to minimizing risk for responders and animals, when responding to a call to rescue a large animal such as a horse.
© 2021 by Toni MacPherson New window.
For $50+HST a small group of registrants will receive an introduction to Large Animal Rescue equipment and techniques, as well as, livestock behaviour and handling.
The 90 minute online session provides an introduction to best practices for mitigating both handler and animal risk for successful rescues and provide a foundation for future hands-on practical training.
“One of our veterinarians has been involved in multiple Large Animal Emergency Rescues. Based on her experience we, as a company, felt it was important to invest in Large Animal Emergency Rescue (LAER) training and education for all of our veterinarians and staff,” says Dr. Mike Pownall , McKee-Pownall Equine Services.
“We specifically wanted to learn how best to work with emergency responders on the scene and stay safe ourselves while assisting the animals in various emergency situations.
The LAER webinar offered by Equine Guelph was very informative and gave all of our team a very good understanding of how to best handle an emergency situation with first responders. We will be sure to enroll new vets and support staff on our team on future webinars.”
In today’s society, responding to incidents involving animals is both an expectation and an acknowledgement that such incidents will likely involve people putting themselves and others at risk. All large animal incidents regardless of cause or scope, present a risk of injury to responders.
“Education, awareness, and planning are key to minimizing risk,” says Victor MacPherson, Lead Instructor, Equine Guelph Large Animal Rescue and Farm & Food Care Ontario Livestock Emergency Response.
“These can be achieved by your awareness training of livestock incidents, following the PLAN method, and knowing your resources. Proper use of specialized equipment and positioning of webbing around the body of the animal is so important to the positive outcome of lifting or dragging a large animal to safety.”
By keeping responders safe, we improve our capacity to keep animals safe.
“Tails, legs, heads and necks are not appropriate handles,” says Equine Guelph Large Animal Rescue program co-ordinator, Dr. Susan Raymond. “it is important to understand how the animal may react to ensure a safe rescue for the animal and for the safety of the responders.”
More workshop information, resource sheets and full bios for the instructors are available on the registration page at TheHorsePortal.ca. Link: https://thehorseportal.ca/course/large-animal-rescue-awareness-level-virtual-workshop-april-28-2021/
This virtual workshop is being offered in partnership with Farm & Food Care Ontario. It is intended for first responders, pre-service, law enforcement, animal control officers, veterinarians, vet. technicians, emergency animal response teams, horse owners, livestock producers and associations.
Equine Guelph is the horse owners' and care givers' Centre at the University of Guelph in Canada. It is a unique partnership dedicated to the health and well-being of horses, supported and overseen by equine industry groups. Equine Guelph is the epicentre for academia, industry and government - for the good of the equine industry as a whole. For further information, visit www.equineguelph.ca.
Story by Jackie Bellamy-Zions