Washington CART gets rescue vehicle
The Washington County Animal Response Team (CART) has responded to animal emergency calls with two trailers for the past 12 years.
This year, the organization is finally getting a rescue truck, thanks to donations from community partners.
“It’s going to save us, at a minimum, 30 minutes per call,” said Washington CART’s coordinator Ed Childers.
Childers said veterinarians with the Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center on Route 19 donated last summer a used ambulance to the response team, which began in 2009 and now has about 35 members across the county.
The donated vehicle had been idle for a while, Childers said, but was in “great shape.” It needed some work to get on the road, such as new brakes and tires. The CART team started a “truck fund” in 2014, and has saved about $25,000, Childers said. That wasn’t enough to buy new, but will cover the costs to get the donated vehicle up to speed and outfitted for their specific needs.
Clearview Federal Credit Union also donated Wednesday $1,000 for the team’s truck as part of the company’s charitable giving fund. Employee Jerri Anesetti picked CART for this month’s charity.
“I’ve seen them in action,” she said. “They put their lives on the line to rescue animals. Not only do they do that, but they volunteer their time to teach. Everything they do is by donation.”
Childers said the donation came at just the right time, as they now have enough funding to get the truck on the road.
“We’re getting it outfitted now,” he said. “We’re hoping to have it in service by next Wednesday.”
Winter is the team’s busiest season, perhaps due to the cold weather, Childers said. They respond anywhere in the county, and sometimes outside the county, “whenever there’s an animal in an emergency,” he said. Their response typically includes the presence of a veterinarian and a fire department.
“We respond mainly to horse calls,” Childers said. “But we also respond to emergencies with smaller animals like dogs and cats.”
One of the trailers they use now is for “sheltering” and the other is for large animals. This new response vehicle will give them the option of transporting smaller animals if needed.
“If we do get involved in a large-scale incident, we will be able to transport animals,” Childers said.
That would have come in handy in August 2018, Childers said, recalling the day the team responded to a Hopewell Township farm where more than 90 German shorthaired pointers were found living in inhumane conditions.
“We could stack crates in the back,” he said. “To me, there’s no reason we wouldn’t be able to transport up to 10 dogs.”