With a rescue team scaling back in Orange County, who will save horses from the next wildfire?
Dee Dee Friedrich remembers how haphazard wildfire horse rescues used to be in Orange County before a team formed to cart animals to safety. “That prompted a lot of people to think, ‘Holy moly, we don’t have a plan.’” That year, Orange County equestrians formed a mutual aid Large Animal Rescue Team, based in San Juan Capistrano. “It’s certainly not unique to Orange County that an animal response team feels it doesn’t have the resources to meet its current efforts,” said William Burke, associate director of planning for the California Veterinary Emergency Team, which works with animal rescue teams statewide. The UC Davis Center for Equine Health’s Horse Report in 2014 called San Juan Capistrano’s team “very successful” and a model used by cities in Los Angeles County. It was a little disorganized.” The Orange County Fire Authority’s report after the Canyon 2 Fire noted a “lack of common evacuation terminology” as one factor as to why evacuations were slow, though ultimately successful.
San Juan Capistrano-based team rescues horses from wildfires and other disasters
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