'They're part of your family': Couple wants to start emergency animal response team on P.E.I.

A B.C. couple that moved to P.E.I. about six months ago wants to start an Atlantic chapter of the Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team, and use the Island as its central dispatch point.

Ron McConnell and his wife are members of CDART (he is on their board of national directors) and said that the Atlantic provinces should have an animal response team.

Just being able to provide the closure to people that would know what happened to their animal is very, very important- Ron McConnell

"We feel that P.E.I. would be an excellent central dispatch point," he said.

He said the team could be important in the event of storm surges, ice storms, and flooding.

"We're not immune from disaster, it may just be of a different type than what we came from in Western Canada."

'Arough week'

McConnell said that animals have fallen into the cracks when it comes to disaster response, and the organization wants to change that.

"Up until the last few years, emergency disaster response hasn't really included that element in their response," he said.

"It hasn't been part of the equation."

McConnell's wife was in Fort McMurray when wildfires forced residents of the town to evacuate.

"It was a rough week," he said. "However we provided a very essential service, our team cleared 1,200 cases in a week."

"Just being able to provide the closure to people that would know what happened to their animal is very, very important."

'Step into any role'

McConnell said that volunteers with the organization are given animal-specific training, but are also trained in regular operations of disaster response.

"So that they can walk into an emergency operations centre or a response centre and they can step into any role there to assist the other volunteers that are there," he said.

McConnell and his wife havespent theirentire lives around animals and understandhow difficult losing a pet is, which is why they're membersof the organization.

"They're part of your family, and there's a huge attachment to our animals."

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