msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Mounted search and rescue
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- From: "Laurie Hanahan" <lhanahan@mindspring.com>
- To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [MSAR] disaster situations and horses
- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:18:20 -0500
I agree that not all situations are appropriate for mounted SAR
or recovery. As a volunteer, that is a factor when determining whether this is
an incident I would respond to as a ground resource or as a mounted resource or
as a resource at all. My first priority is maintaining safety of myself, my
partner and my other team members. My partner in some cases is my horse and it
is ultimately my responsibility to protect her from becoming another victim. It was bad enough bringing my truck into the Oklahoma City F5
tornado zone ten years ago for pet rescue and recovery, I can’t imagine risking
a horse’s safety by bringing it into the same environment or another remotely similar
environment. Laurie Hanahan TROTSAR Virginia From:
msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of sarcrna@aol.com I respond to many disasters here in Texas and I would have
to ask why one would do so with a horse? In a post hurricane situation I
respond with my dogs not horses as the terrain is too dangerous for horses.
I am thinking about the recent situations that I have gone to and I can
not say I would have accomplished very much with a horse. The swamps in
Chambers County were certainly not appropriate for horses--ATV's and swamp
buggies were used as the muck was deep and difficult to move around in.
If a horse was shod it would have lost all its shoes the first 30 mins.
of searching. Sometimes there are better tools available such as the
ATV's as Hazmat and debris will not do as much permanent damage to a machine as
they will to an animal. I have dealt with health issues for several years
post Katrina with a search dog due to a hazmat exposure. At least with a
dog a liver biopsy is not that big of a deal and hepatitis fortunately is
something the dog can overcome. I am not sure how a horse would handle a
hazmat exposure. That would be a very expensive vet bill and the horse
would still probably still not survive. Horses are not as resilient as
dogs. Not that I wish for either of my animals to become exposed to
something that could harm their lives, but at least the dog would be less
worrisome and easier to treat. Susan Martinez |
-
[MSAR] disaster situations and horses,
sarcrna, 02/23/2009
- Re: [MSAR] disaster situations and horses, Una Smith, 02/23/2009
- Re: [MSAR] disaster situations and horses, Laurie Hanahan, 02/24/2009
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [MSAR] disaster situations and horses,
Joseph Huston, 02/23/2009
- Re: [MSAR] disaster situations and horses, IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN, 02/23/2009
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