Large Animal Technical Rescue Training Courses

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  Our training courses are open to ANYONE with a vested interest in large animal rescue or ANYONE who may one day find themselves on the scene of an incident involving a large animal... firefighters, rescue technicians, veterinary professionals, animal control, owners and trainers, farmers, exotic and zoo caretakers, wildlife officers, law enforcement officers, animal welfare organizations, transporters, equestrian event coordinators, etc.  

Everyone either resides or travels where large animals (domestic livestock and exotics) are located, where livestock trailers share the roadways, where equine and livestock farms and facilities are located, where there is potential for natural disasters to cause incidents involving large animals, and so on. Animal emergencies are known for becoming human emergencies, especially if emergency responders or veterinary professionals are unable to respond or unable to affect a successful rescue due to lack of proper equipment or training. Once an emotional owner, “Good Samaritan”, or “social media responder” with little to no training attempt a rescue, they often unintentionally become a victim requiring assistance from emergency services and further compromising the animal even further by delaying its rescue. Either way, the animal will need to be rescued… the question that remains is “Are you or the agency, organization, business, or department prepared to handle the rescue operation safely, efficiently, and successfully?” If this describes you or an agency, organization, business, or department that you are associated with, then you shouldn’t miss out on this valuable training opportunity.

Our Large Animal Technical Rescue training courses will provide an educational and interactive approach to basic on-hand and specialized equipment, simple to complex techniques, and safety considerations to prepare the individual rescuer for the unexpected. Although the focus of these training courses is on large animal rescue operations, it also includes aspects of companion animal (dog and cat) rescue in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards and FEMA Resource Typing for emergency response teams. Topics covered in the course content include, but are not limited to… Animal Behavior, Safety Considerations, Handling and Restraint, Pre-planned and Emergency Containment, Simple to Complex Entrapments, Motor Vehicle Accidents with Driver/Passenger and/or Animal Entrapment, Transportation Accidents, Barn and Wildfires, Unstable Ground Incidents (mud, trench, ice, etc.), Water Related Incidents (pools, ponds, rivers, slack and swift water, etc.), Natural Disaster Preparation and Response, Hazardous Materials Decontamination, Basic Medical Management Considerations, Emergency Euthanasia Practices (chemical and firearm/captive bolt), etc. Currently, this is not a recognized certification course per NFPA, however portions of this course coincide with aspects of the NFPA standards 2500, 150, 1006, 1952, and 1983. 

We highly recommend that the course attendants be a mixture of fire/rescue personnel, veterinary professionals, and animal control officers, as those are the people who will most likely be involved as a “team of strangers” on a large animal related incident. There is no better time than a training course to network and learn to work together as a cohesive team with varying strengths, weaknesses, education, experience, and specialized skillsets. There will be times when the fire/rescue side of a rescue operation may negate something that the veterinarian or animal control wants to do due to safety concerns, but there are also times when the veterinarian will need to safely access a part of the animal to sedate or anesthetize to make it safer for the responders to perform the rescue. The efficiency, timing, and physical performance of tasks all play a crucial role in a successful rescue operation. 

Even if you have attended a Large Animal Technical Rescue course in the past, we highly recommend attending another course to stay current with the most recent updates to applicable standards and protocols, advancements to equipment due to ongoing research and development, and changes to techniques used to make the rescue operation safer, quicker, and easier therefore increasing the chances of a successful outcome and decreasing the risk of iatrogenic injury or death of the animal victim, rescuers, or bystanders. 

OPERATIONS LEVEL COURSE (includes AWARENESS LEVEL)

Our LATR Operations Level course is a 3-day (24-hour) format with audio/visual lecture and multiple hands-on scenarios for simple to complex rescue operations. The Operations Level course content meets and exceeds FEMA Type 1 Large Animal Rescue Standards for USAR TF Operations Level Training and includes 50+ NFPA 1006 Technical Rescue Competencies for Awareness, Operations, and some Technician Level skills. The course may also qualify for continuing education credit hours for animal control, veterinary professionals, and emergency services depending on individual state or agency requirements (check with the area course coordinator for confirmation on a specific training course event). Currently, there are no pre-requisites for the Operations Level course, however there are several recommended online training courses and concepts for review prior to course attendance so that all attendees are familiar with terminology, modalities, and basic techniques used during the course. Existing basic and specialized equipment belonging to an attending agency or organization can be utilized during the training course for a more realistic rescue operation using what will be available during an actual incident response or equipment from our 40-foot response trailer can be utilized as a stand-alone or in combination with existing equipment.

TECHNICIAN LEVEL COURSE 

Our LATR Technician Level course is a scenario based 2-day (16-hour) or 3-day (24-hour) format with an short audio/visual lecture just to review the basic techniques and safety precautions then the staging of multiple hands-on complex scenarios (if logistics allows) for the attendees to participate in rescue operations with the oversight from our team as they work through the planning and rescue operation on their own or with our guidance using their equipment or equipment provided by our team. This course’s target attendance base is fire / rescue, technical rescue teams, USAR teams, and veterinary professionals who have previously completed an approved LATR Operations Level training course. The Technician Level course can be customized to work with rotating shift schedules with advanced approval during the scheduling and contracting process. The pre-requisite for attending the Technician Level course is a certificate of completion, dated within the previous 5 years, from one of our Operations Level courses or a pre-approved comparable Large Animal Technical Rescue Operations Level course. Existing basic and specialized equipment belonging to an attending agency or organization can be utilized during the training course for a more realistic response using what will be available during an actual incident response or equipment from our 40-foot response trailer can be utilized as a stand-alone or in combination with existing equipment.