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=nfo~ma-(-;o~ =-I-em <br />. ~,o <br />®,. <br />,, <br />'.G ta. <br />Orange County Animal Services <br />501 W. Franklin St, Suite 106, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 968-2287 <br />Memorandum <br />DATE: March 17th, 2009 <br />SUBJECT: Pet Co-Located Sheltering During Disasters <br />FROM: Bob Marotto -Animal Services Director <br />F Rojas Montes de Oca, Jr -Colonel, Emergency Services Director <br />Clint Osborn, Captain -Emergency Management <br />TO: County Manager's Office and Board of County Commissioners <br />Concept <br />In late 2007 the Board of County Commissioners requested through the County <br />Manager's Office that the Animal Services Department and the Emergency Services <br />Department explore the possibility of changing the existing model for emergency <br />sheltering of pets during a disaster. In the current model, pets that arrive at an <br />emergency shelter are transported by Animal Services staff from the emergency shelter <br />directly to the animal shelter for the duration of the owner's stay at the emergency <br />facility; the model that the Board has proposed involves animals being sheltered at the <br />same emergency facility as their owners for the duration of the owner's stay. This new <br />model is known as Companion Animal Co-Location, or "co-location" for short. <br />Background ~ History <br />To explore the Board's suggestion, Emergency Services and Animal Services staff <br />began by looking for existing co-location models that have been successfully developed <br />and employed in other areas with similar risks as North Carolina. This search included <br />looking for: <br />• Equipment packages <br />• Safety and health guidelines <br />• Operations toolkits <br />• Funding sources <br />In addition, early research indicated that North Carolina Emergency Management <br />(NCEM) and North Carolina Division of Agriculture and Consumer Safety (NCAg) have <br />teamed up to offer these materials and very limited program support to local <br />jurisdictions that are interested in creating this unique capability. The NCEM/NCAg <br />"system" is modeled after systems developed in Florida and is currently being deployed <br />to counties throughout the state under the name "Companion Animal Mobile Equipment <br />