While watching Animal Planet...okay my wife was and I was at the computer....there was this dog being transported to an animal in an ambulance with lights and siren. I didn't catch where it was. I've never heard of this being done in Delaware. Does your department do it or would that do it?

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No transporting animals..Take them in your own vehicle or call a Taxi. I have heard of some European towns/cities that have animal ambulances.
Marc,

This is part of the real world of fire/EMS you really haven't entered into yet. Are you honestly advocating that ambulances should respond to animal calls? Give me a break. As I mentioned this isn't about a assisting an animal on a scene or doing what you can, it is about setting a precidence which there is no place for.

We have the pet resusitator masks and had some very brief training with treating animals, but we are not transporting, nor should we, nor anyone. We are not vet techs, we are EMT's and medics. The fact still remains that when you start transporting animals, where does it stop? I could care less about what ever MA agreements there are, nor how many ambulances an area has or what have you, there is a HUGE difference that an ambulance is out because of helping a person and going out for an animal. It is one thing helping an animal on a scene, but something completely different when transports are involved. What next? What happens when avg citizen starts calling because Fluffy is having difficulty breathing? Yeah sure send that nearest ambulance, meanwhile a legit medical call for a human comes in and they die waiting the next in rig. It is about resource management and SCOPE OF TRAINING....animals do not fit that scope of training.
how does a huge area like DC only run 37 transport ambulances?

How huge do you think DC is? Off the net it is saying an area of about 68 square miles with a population of just under 600,000....which does increase during the typical workday.

Now contrast that 37 ambulances to an area like Green Bay, WI with an area of about 54 square miles. Of which we have 4 ambulances in the city.

Now there are more services and other depts outlying, but both are a difference from LA with 398 sq mi and a population of just under 4 million. It is all in context.
And I wouldn't have a problem rehabing a dog at a fire scene, we have doggie non- rebreathers on the ambulances. It goes a long way on public opinion, it's free good PR.

Rehabing an animal on a fire scene is one thing, transporting is another. Rehabing is also fine if you did have the resources there too. Yes, it is good PR, but what about the bad PR that would start accompying the issue of responding to and transporting people's pets?
We have a lot more than 600,000 people in our city at all times though. During a weekday we have over 1.5 million. Even at night it's probably close to a million. There's all of the tourists, many visitors for the night life, and the students for all of the colleges.(we have about 10) The city limits are small, but it is one of the most dense and most urban cities in the country. Green Bay can get by because it is more of a town than a city. We are on pace for about 180,000 runs this year.
Capcity,
I understand that about population influxes, I was just basing the info off the net for the kid. I understand how we can get by here and also understand the population influxes, we get that too when there is a Packer game.

My point was to show the kid how things are in contrast and why DC has a seeminly low number of transport ambulances when the kid is coming from an area like LA.
No I understand what you were getting at. Was just kind of expanding on it for him since he seemed to not really understand anything about DC.
I remember being on the way home one evening and at a traffic light and a county animal control van came up on my rightside with its warning lights on and stop and then went through the red light. I had heard of a incident up from my house of a dog attack on people. So in a way that was an emergency situation that required my fire company and ems units and the police. One dog involved had to be shot dead and the other wounded by police. There are more police, fire and ems stations in our county but only one animal control operation and they have a long ways to go to get to any part of the county.
I don't even like transporting BLS with lights and sirens! Stay safe!
We had an incident in my FD about this. Dog get hist by car, Ambulance sees dog get hit by car. Ambulance driver (also a Lt.) is a HUGE animal lover, rescues dogs, all of that stuff. Puts dog in back of ambulance (which is a violation of the health and safety code here in VA) Pulls up to Animal Hospital takes dog in.....first question Vetniarian asks? Who is going to pay for this?

Thats the biggest thing is animal dont have insurance so if you cant pay a VET (at least here) is not going to work on your animal.

So long story short you cant do it here, me not being much of an animal lover even if you could do it....I wouldnt.
We also have Pet O2 masks on the rigs....We are allowed to try on scene resusitation thats it.....again me not being much of an animal lover I probably wouldnt do it.....unless there was nothing else on the fireground to do. I would rather take vitals on the fireman in rehab than put O2 on a dog or cat....just my opinion....not trying to hate.
No, we do not transport animals. The police will transport their own K9 officers in the event of an injury. Even in the case of a seeing eye dog, the Police will take the animal and keep him/her at the PD where the animal is cared for until the patient is released.

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