CMDART – Central Massachusestts Disaster Animal Response Team

Plan • Prepare • Respond

CMDART is an independent, charitable, non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization. We provide information, training, support, supplies and personnel to help plan, prepare and respond to aid animals affected by man-made or natural disasters at all levels of disasters according to our capabilities and resources.

Introduction to Animal Disaster Services and Basic Emergency Animal Sheltering

Check in with us frequently for the next date and location for our trainings.

Contact [email protected] if you have an interest in scheduling a training.

One of CMDARTs Greet, Reach, Teach programs held on June 28, 2023 was on Reading and Handling Animals Under Stressful Conditions. The goal of the program was to help emergency response teams, CERTS, Red Cross, and others, to learn how to manage animals and pet owners affected by emergencies/disasters. It was a nice collaboration between community teams and animal control.. We thank the Community Foundation of North Central Mass, the Fitchburg Fire Department, and Animal Control from Fitchburg/ Leominster, Holden Sterling For helping to make this a fun learning experience tonight.

Biggest Animal Welfare Festival in New England

26th Annual Pet Rock Fest

Sunday Oct 6 Noon to 5 PM

LANCASTER FAIRGROUNDS, MA

(Home of the Bolton Fair)

CMDART will be at Pet Rock again this year with a little different twist.

CMDART (the Central Massachusetts Disaster Animal Response Team, Inc) in collaboration with the American Red Cross Central, will host a mission- focused, interactive fun activities focusing on pet care, pet and human first aid/cpr, along with human and animal disaster prevention activities...all of this weaved into a limited agility "try-its" course. This is s fun-d-raiser for the organizations so a donation of $8 will be requested at the entrance to the activity. All funds go directly into our mission activities. Barring an emergency call that day, The American Red Cross will host a demo of their Emergency Response Vehicle. CMDART will also have their Emergency Response Trailer there for viewing.

Resource Recovery Sites

CMDART and local animal control offer food, toys, and other information to pet owners affected by fires and other disasters. RRC’s are only setup for large multi- family, multi-unit fires and other large incidents to allow clients to get service information in one location, rather than having to go to multiple locations for help.

CERT Rodeo Training

Approximately 150 people attended the Massachusetts Emergency Management sponsored Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Rodeo rally today in Leicester. CERT teams from across the state attended to get a refresh on learning to re-establish local teams and get a refresh of training for Sheltering, search and rescue and other community organizing needs to prepare for local emergency management incidents.

Larry Holmberg, Hampshire Emergency Response Team (left) talks to some local CERT members about animal Disaster response.

The Salvation Army provided lunch for all of those who attended.

Larry brought their DART trailer from Western, Mass.

Leominster Emergency Mgmt CERT.

Pet First Aid Training & CPR

Would you like to reduce your trips to the veterinary?
Want to know how to help your pet in an emergency?

From time to time we host pet first aid trainings. For more information [email protected]

Greet, Reach, Teach Gathering

CMDART held one of its Greet, Reach programs, to provide an opportunity for our volunteers to gather together, enjoy meeting, and learn some new skills together. Our special guests were from the Humane Society of the United States talking about our year-long deployment of volunteers to aid emergency animal sheltering for the Great Dane incident in New Hampshire. more than 500 volunteers from cross the country, including 12 from our team, deployed to aid the massive task of doing emergency animal sheltering for 84 Great Danes who eventually were re-homed.

The second Greet, Reach Teach, included guest speakers Michael Keiley, from the MSPCA, speaking on their response to the Merrimack Valley Gas Explosion. CMDART had readied volunteers and equipment for mutual aid, but eventually only supplied goods to some of the shelters set up in that area. Ilene Segal, DVM, from SMART, also joined us at G,R.T, to help us review some basic vital signs and pet first aid we would do at an emergency situation/shelter.

We were glad to have a couple of animal control, members of the local CERT teams, and Medical Reserve Corps attend the events held at the American Red Cross building in Worcester.

Planning to Evacuate with Your Pet

Click Here To Read About Disaster Preparedness For Your Pet

Just as you would with your family’s emergency supply kit, think first about the basics for your pet’s survival and care after a disaster event.

Read FEMA’s Pet Owner’s Fact Sheet Here

ProPac offers a tremendous selection of pet care products during times of an emergency.
Below are a sample of these items, plus you can find more online here.

Pet First Aid Pouch Kit

Order your Pet First Aid Pouch Kit online here

Handy Grab and Go® Pet First Aid kit is ideal for home, travel and outdoor activities. This kit is ideal for dogs under 40 pounds and cats.

- - - - Compact, moisture resistant standup pouch fits easily into a backpack, glovebox or drawer.
      - Easy to carry and resealable
      - Pouch features see-through back to find what you need fast!
      - Tough metal foil/plastic laminate on the front.
      - Measures 6″ W x 9.25″ H x 2.5″ D
      - Product weight 9 oz.

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