Our community moves fast to protect people and animals in times of disaster. You can make a difference and help with ongoing animal rescue efforts and the long-term financial needs of these life-saving organizations in the wake of the Thomas Fire and Montecito Mudslide disaster.
Many of these organizations below depend on your contributions to perform their mission. The impact of recent disasters has left their financial resources depleted and inadequate. Your support can effectively save the lives of countless people and animals in our beloved community, and help them provide Santa Barbara County with future emergency assistance.
As a snapshot, this letter addresses the process and status of large and small animal rescue, wildlife rescue, and animal search and recovery dogs involved in human rescue and recovery.
These organizations below need your charitable financial donations today:
Earl Warren Showgrounds – 19th Agricultural District:
Click Here to Donate: http://sbshowgrounds.org/donate
Earl Warren Showgrounds functions as the primary facility for large animals and staging ground for Incident Command in South County. It also houses the Santa Barbara Equine Evacuation & Assistance team and provides access to its stable facilities for the evacuation of large animals. To help address the state budget cuts, the Showgrounds created a non-profit arm that can accept online donations. There is a significant need for additional funds both in the short-term to address disasters such as the Thomas Fire and the Montecito Mudslide and in the long-term to preserve and improve this critical infrastructure asset in SB County.
Santa Barbara Equine Evacuation and Assistance Team:
Click Here to Donate: https://www.paypal.com/uk/fundraiser/charity/1682430
Funds and supplies donated to SB Equine Evac are tax-deductible and go toward the procurement of feed for animals sheltered during a disaster, as well as bedding, supplies, and safety equipment necessary to carry out their mission.
Santa Barbara County Animal Services (AS):
Click Here to Donate: http://cosb.countyofsb.org/phd/as/
Donations can be made directly to SB County Animal Services. You can specify that donations go specifically to the Disaster.
Animal Services manages the animal rescue hotline, dispatches teams to pick up animals and works with NGO partners including: SB Equine Evacuation and Assistance Team (large animals including horses, llamas, alpacas, cows, steers, chickens, etc. The SB Humane Society (dogs), ASAP (cats), Animal Rescue Team (wildlife), SB Wildlife Care Network (birds, reptiles and other small wildlife), BUNS (rabbits and guinea pigs).
Search and Rescue Dog Operations:
Click Here to Donate: https://searchdogfoundation.org/donate/
Search and Rescue Dogs are coordinated by Incident Command. Teams come from all over but a substantial portion were trained at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) located in Santa Paula. Search dogs are specially trained to locate either ‘live finds’ or ‘remains.’ NDSDF is a private, non-profit that has trained 192 dogs since 1996. Many of the dogs are former ‘rescues’ themselves.
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The memo below describes detailed animal rescue efforts and fundraising needs in the wake of the Thomas Fire and Montecito Mudslide disaster.
Earl Warren Showgrounds – 19th Agricultural District:
Click Here to Donate: http://sbshowgrounds.org/donate
Earl Warren Showgrounds functions as the primary facility for large animals and staging ground for Incident Command in South County. It also houses the Santa Barbara Equine Evacuation & Assistance team and provides access to its stable facilities for the evacuation of large animals.
Earl Warren Showgrounds: To help address the state budget cuts, the Showgrounds created a non-profit arm that can accept online donations via PayPal – the Santa Barbara Showgrounds Foundation.
Background: Earl Warren Showgrounds functions as the location that houses Incident Command during South County disasters. It also houses Equine Evac and provides access to its stable facilities for the evacuation of large animals. The Showgrounds has an operating budget of approximately $2.3 million and was in relatively stable economic condition until about five years ago when the Brown Administration cut all funding from the state to zero. The budget cut amounted to about $200,000 per year and also transferred costs the state had been paying for insurance and other items to Earl Warren. To address the budget cut, the Showgrounds depleted reserves and the facility itself has a significant backlog of deferred maintenance. Given that the Showgrounds is classified as a Class 4 (small) facility, it is harder to stage the kind of for-profit events that support larger fairground facilities.
The following are the natural disaster incidents that the Earl Warren Showgrounds has assisted within the last ten years:
Zaca Fire – Fire Command Center and Staging Center – Animal Evacuation Center
Jesusita Fire – Fire Command Center and Staging Center – Animal Evacuation Center
La Brea Fire – Animal Evacuation Center
Bar Fire – Animal Evacuation Center
Tea Fire – Fire Command Center and Staging Center – Animal Evacuation Center
Gap Fire – Fire Command Center and Staging Center – Animal Evacuation Center
Sherpa Fire – Animal Evacuation Center
Whittier Fire – Animal Evacuation Center (102 Horses)
Thomas Fire – Animal Evacuation Center (1,430 Animals)
Montecito Flood – Command Center and Staging Center – Animal Evacuation Center (193 animals)
It should be noted that the last four events occurred since the Sherpa Fire in 2016.
Payment for Services: The Showgrounds is not paid to house animals during a natural disaster. In order to accept animals that are evacuated, it partners with Equine Evac who assumes all responsibility for evacuation, intake, and cataloging, feeding and care. Further, the Showgrounds cannot bill for hosting Incident Command unless there is formal disaster declaration at which point they can request funds from FEMA.
Needs and Donations: To help address the state budget cuts, the Showgrounds created a non-profit arm that can accept online donations via PayPal – the Santa Barbara Showgrounds Foundation: http://sbshowgrounds.org/. There is a significant need for additional funds both in the short term to address disasters such as the Thomas Fire and the Montecito Mudslide and in the longer term to preserve and improve this critical infrastructure asset in SB County.
Contact for Earl Warren Showgrounds:
Scott Grieve, CEO
Cell 805-310-1315
Contact for the Foundation:
The Earl Warren Showgrounds Foundation
3463 Calle Real, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805.687.0766
Website: http://sbshowgrounds.org/
Santa Barbara Equine Evacuation and Assistance Team:
Click Here to Donate: https://www.paypal.com/uk/fundraiser/charity/1682430
Funds and supplies donated to SB Equine Evac are tax-deductible and go toward the procurement of feed for animals sheltered during a disaster, as well as bedding, supplies, and safety equipment necessary to carry out our mission.
Status: This all-volunteer organization is currently housing the largest population of large animals displaced by the disaster(s) at Earl Warren Showgrounds. They have been on-site since the start of the Thomas Fire in early December when large numbers of horses were transported to the facility under emergency conditions. Currently, they are housing 193 animals including horses/pony/donkey, ducks, geese, turkeys, llamas, alpacas, cows, steers and rabbits. They are the ones who go into the disaster zone to rescue the large animals under extremely difficult conditions. They have a small housing trailer on-site at Earl Warren that is their base of operations, horse and livestock trailers to pick up large and small animals, and at least one volunteer who sleeps on site every night. They do all the feeding, mucking, and exercise of the animals. They also assist in making arrangements for owners whose large animals remain in the evacuation area to get them feed.
Current Needs: The greatest need is for charitable financial donations to cover the cost of feed, shavings, equipment upkeep, etc. We are working to get them set up with a direct donation service such as PayPal and hope to have that resolved today. Longer term, they need an additional housing trailer as well as a golf cart to get around the fairgrounds. Suzanne immediately covered their existing feed bill at La Cumbre Feed for which they were enormously grateful as they rely on donations to cover all their costs.
Contact: Ronda Hathaway
Cell Phone: 805-452-9236.
Email: rondahathaway@yahoo.com.
Website: www.sbequineevac.org:
Santa Barbara County Animal Services (AS):
Click Here to Donate: Donations can be made directly to SB County Animal Services: at https://licensepet.com/wl2/v260p/WebForm_AgencyLicense04.aspx. You can specify that donations go specifically to the Disaster.
Animal Services manages the animal rescue hotline, dispatches teams to pick up animals and works with NGO partners including: SB Equine Evacuation and Assistance Team (large animals including horses, llamas, alpacas, cows, steers, chickens, etc. The SB Humane Society (dogs), ASAP (cats), Animal Rescue Team (wildlife), SB Wildlife Care Network (birds, reptiles and other small wildlife), BUNS (rabbits and guinea pigs).
During the disaster, calls come in from first responders on the scene who encounter lost and or injured animals, owners who left animals behind, etc. Animal Services dispatches teams to go in and pick up the animals. They are also responsible for picking up deceased animals, scanning for chips and maintaining a log. They also coordinate all veterinary care for the search and rescue dogs who are working the incident. These dogs are checked twice a day at Earl Warren.
Status: As of Saturday, 1/13/18, Animal Services was housing approximately 50 animals (dogs, cats, birds, chickens, turtles) and had four teams in the field rescuing animals. This number does not include the animals that are placed with their NGO partner organizations. Equine Evac, alone, is housing 193 animals at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Animal Services estimated that they had 40 to 50 pending calls yesterday and that each day brings more calls. Each situation is different and has been complicated by the mandatory evacuation area which has made it difficult if not impossible for owners to get back in to retrieve animals left behind.
Contact: The primary contact is Jennifer Adame, the Community Outreach Coordinator.
Website: http://cosb.countyofsb.org/phd/as/
Cell phone: 805-698-1289.
Landline: 805-681-4332.
Email: Jennifer Adame@sbcphd.org.
Animal Services is located at 5473 Overpass Road.
Search and Rescue Dog Operations:
Click Here to Donate: https://searchdogfoundation.org/donate/
Search and Rescue Dogs are coordinated by Incident Command. Teams come from all over but a substantial portion were trained at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) located in Santa Paula. Search dogs are specially trained to locate either ‘live finds’ or ‘remains.’ NDSDF is a private, non-profit that has trained 192 dogs since 1996. Many of the dogs are former ‘rescues’ themselves.
Needs: According to an article in the SB Independent, “the Foundations 125-acre compound in Santa Paula had been open for two months when the Thomas Fire struck. That fire destroyed five acres of the Foundation’s training grounds, including a model city, known as “Rescue City.”
Link to SB Independent article: https://www.independent.com/news/2018/jan/14/search-dogs-comb-hills-montecito-survivors-and-rem/
Website: https://searchdogfoundation.org
Phone: 805-646-1015
Address: 6800 Wheeler Canyon Road, Santa Paula, CA 93060
Founder: Wilma Melville.
Foundation spokesperson: Denise Sanders.