North Country Inspiration: Love animals? You can help rescue them in emergencies

CANTON, New York (WWNY) - The animals are happy and healthy now, but emergencies do happen, so the St Lawrence County Animal Response Team needs to be ready to help them.

Right now, there aren’t enough volunteers to do that.

“Animals don’t know what to do in an emergency situation, so if smoke is filling the building, if there’s major flooding, they don’t know what to do, they don’t know to evacuate,” said Jonathan Mitchell, who’s the county’s deputy director of Emergency Services. “So, to have a team focused on evacuating and sheltering, that fills a big gap that’s currently in our community.”

The Animal Response Team comes into play during big fires, ice storms, floods, or other emergency situations where many animals need care.

During the fire evacuation of Riverview Towers in 2022, pets had to be put on the backburner and taken wherever.

“They were requested to respond, but due to lack of volunteers, were unable to go,” Mitchell said.

So, if you love animals and want to help the community, this is the perfect opportunity.

“Anybody who has good experience with animals, dogs, cats, horses, goats, anything you can think of, that’s who we’d love to join our team,” Mitchell said.

If you’re interested in becoming an Animal Response Team volunteer, go to https://stlawco.gov/Departments/EmergencyServices/em/CART or email stlawrencecart@gmail.com.

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