ARRC VA SART Training
Animal Response and Rescue Coalition proudly kicked off their first official training in Wakefield, Virginia at the 4-H Conference Center in Wakefield Virginia on April 4-6th for Virginia SART.
The two and a half day training was generously sponsored by a training grant and supporters from the AKC of Virginia, Virginia Federation of Humane Societies and the Virginia Farm Bureau. With close to 80 attendees from all over the state and neighboring states like Maryland and Delaware. We were indeed happily surprised to find out that some participant’s unknown to us, even traveled from as far as California to participate! That didn’t include our professional well- seasoned animal disaster instructors: Thea Martin, California, Tammy Hann- Harlan, Ohio, Valerie Farlow, North Carolina, Jo Ellen Cimmino, Connecticut, Betty Donnelson, California. A tremendous amount of expertise was shared from our guest speaker animal control officers from the different counties and CART teams of Virginia to the ever so organized Suzie Parsons with the Chesapeake Emergency Management office that helped to organize the whole training location right down to the lodging and meals too. The post evaluations were amazing and very high scoring. Here are a couple of our favorite comments: “The personalization of the education from the instructors was priceless” “All the information was very valid and helpful -I would definitely go again” Shortly after the training ARRC received a forwarded message from one of the attendees that was shared with VA SART and VA Emergency Management.
“This was the best animal workshop/seminar…I think I’ve been to, including professional/business IT ones that I’ve attended. They were the most informative, friendly, group of people. Suzie Parsons, you outdid yourself and set the bar just miles above. I’ve rarely seen something that addresses ALL sorts of side effects, items to think about, not just the main points. You picked the best, experienced, all around positive attitude people to present this training. I only hope that all animal welfare/rescue type groups would take advantage of this opportunity.” Sincerely Victoria Nicholls
Wow! now that is a great start for our training season!
Thanks to everyone who participated to help make this first training so successful!
Valerie Farlow shows participants how to set humane cat traps during training.
Thea Martin educates the group about cat handling techniques during one of the animal handling rotations.
During the Horse Handling rotation, instructor Jo Ellen Cimmino goes over the basics of equine behavior and care during disasters.
Tammy Hann- Harlan reviews with the audience the importance of DisasterPsychology when doing Animal disaster response work.