Speaker:
Dr. G:
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From Chaos to Care: Inside Animal
Disaster Response and the UF Vets Team
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with a Forensic Twist, we have Dr.
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Larry Garcia.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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You're welcome.
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It's good to be here.
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Dr. G:
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Can you let our, audience know who
you are and what it is that you do?
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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Okay.
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I'm a veterinarian.
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I'm faculty at the University of Florida.
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I run our disaster response team.
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I also do some other things, uh, teaching
clinical skills and shelter medicine
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and some shelter medicine surgery.
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But for the most part, the disaster
is kind of like my passion on the side
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there, and mostly because of the help
that we're able to provide after disaster.
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Dr. G:
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So what does the team look like?
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Like, what does your day-to-day-- I mean,
I know that it's gonna change based on the
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disaster, but what does things look like?
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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Well, it's kind of interesting
because most of us have day jobs,
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and so basically, the disaster
response is kind of like our side job.
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And so how that works is when there's
a disaster coming, we're in constant
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communication with the state, usually
daily phone calls, and I serve as
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point on that, and then I just kinda
communicate back to my team as things
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go, what things that we're anticipating.
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Generally, the state focuses mostly on
what needs are out there, how do we meet
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those needs, who can meet those needs.
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So for us, we're
basically like on standby.
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Like this time of year, we're having
our vehicles serviced, we're having
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our equipment updated, we're getting
our inventories up to date because
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as June first rolls around, it's
all about making sure we're ready.
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We can do a lot of different
configurations, small and large, just
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kinda depending on what is needed.
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And so a lot of what our team does
is just kinda spends time preparing.
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We do drills, we do exercises
with the state and as a team.
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We train our veterinary students
in various things in disaster
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response so they can come with us.
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And then, on a more daily basis, we
do some local animal response for
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animal technical rescue, so horse in a
septic tank, horse in a pool, various
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large animals in the wrong places.
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And so that's kind of a more on the
day-to-day, so that's like an all
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year-round thing We generally get an
actual call about quarterly, and so we
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have a response rig ready, and basically,
we just call our phone tree, bring all
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our responders together, and then we
go out and respond to the situation.
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The difference on the disaster side is
generally for us, September, October are
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like our peak disaster response times,
but we were actually at the ready just
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recently when there were those fires.
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Well, nothing was needed because
luckily most of the areas where there
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might be animals in need would be where
one of the larger fires were, the two
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shelters that are in that locality
were able to empty out and put animals
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into foster in safe parts of the town
so that that way those other than the
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facilities, the animals were in safe care.
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Dr. G:
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So I imagine here in Florida during the
fall and such, your biggest disaster is
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gonna be more like hurricanes, correct?
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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Yeah.
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That's the most common.
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We have not had need of
responding to any tornadoes.
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But, it does seem to be like our most
common deployment on the disaster side
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other than the rare occasional hoarding
case does tend to be hurricanes.
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Dr. G:
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What kind of services are you
providing during those cases?
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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So it can totally depend.
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Anything from getting a whole bunch
of vaccines donated because it's a
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situation where we need to do like
massive amounts of vaccinations to,
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we go and provide some sort of triage
where, you know, it's a flood situation
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after a hurricane or something like
that where they're bringing tons of
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people and their animals to a shelter
that actually allows them to cohabitate.
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So we're helping intake those
animals, make sure they're okay,
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and make sure they're healthy.
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If they need anything, provide any kind
of treatments and care so that the owner
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can take care of the animal from there.
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We've done where we're a field
hospital, and so in that case, it's
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like people who can't get to care
because there's no care available.
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So veterinary practices are
trying to get back on their feet.
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Veterinary practice staff are like dealing
with their homes, and so we come in, we're
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able to provide that support to them.
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A lot of times we actually come in
through animal control because those
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animal care individuals need help with
various situations and need medical care.
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And, you know, like they're...
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If they have a veterinarian,
the veterinarian's taking care
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of the shelter animals, and so
they need other veterinarians to
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take care of these other things.
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Sometimes we're doing health
certificates so that the adoptable
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animals that have no ties to the area
can get transported to a safe area.
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And on the large animal side, it's
been anything from like decon because
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it's floodwaters or something like
that to, you know, basic vaccine or
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some sort of care related to an injury.
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We're extremely dynamic in that
we can like flex and adjust.
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While we have five trucks and
trailers, they are set up such
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that we can adapt what we bring.
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Like if I know it's gonna be a
mostly small animal situation, I
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bring mostly small animal supplies
and a few backup large animal.
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Vice versa if I need more...
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So we basically tailor
to what the requests are.
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A lot of the requests after a hurricane
are helping a shelter, whether it's
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the shelter itself because they weren't
able to get the animals out, the shelter
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because they got search and rescue
bringing in so many animals, or like
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a human shelter that has people with
animals that were injured in the process.
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We had people that were in pet-friendly
shelters that had been in floodwaters
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in their home, and so their animals
were exposed to things, and they were
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exposed to things and trying to provide
medical care to those animals for that.
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So kind of any and all of
the above sort of thing.
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Dr. G:
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If somebody wants to get more
information about the disaster
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team, where can they go?
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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Basically, all they would have to do is
look up UF VETS at University of Florida,
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or University of Florida Disaster Response
Team, and they can find our team website.
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And then for veterinarians, one of
the things to think about is the
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Florida Veterinary Medical Association
has a volunteer page that tells
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you what to do, and so that's super
helpful because we work with them.
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And so because of the way the university
is set up, it works better for
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veterinarians that are not directly
associated with the veterinary
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school to volunteer through the FVMA.
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This way they make sure they have their
trainings and everything in order,
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and then they help distribute the
veterinarians to wherever the need is.
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B- And, you know, it could be any
number of things where the need is.
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Dr. G:
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Excellent.
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Thank you for sharing this
information, and more importantly,
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thank you for what you're doing.
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Dr. Larry Garcia:
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You're welcome.
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I love what I do.
