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     Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue

Drs. Tomas & Rebecca Gimenez

  Please take a few moments to visit the gallery.  It has undergone some major design changes.  New pictures will be arriving soon!

Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue Training offers training nationwide for emergency response community members such as firefighters, rescue squads, police, sheriff's and animal control offices, and large animal veterinarians. Over the last 10 years, the emergency community has begun to respond to these types of common incidents as the public has adopted a "911 call does it all" mentality, and have expressed a need for awareness and operational training in this specialty.

The principles behind using slings and ropes for animal transport are not new, as shown in the National Geographic photograph below, Circa 1921.  What the TLAER training course does is bring together in three days all of the latest concepts and equipment being used today.  The course is updated constantly.

"'Throughout the whole region ... bridges are few and primitive,' wrote A.L. Shelton, author of 'Life Among the People of Eastern Tibet,' from the September 1921 National Geographic. This image of a precarious Mekong River crossing was first published in that issue. 'With his mount securely trussed to the rope bridge,' says the photo's caption, 'the owner supplies his own motive power, hand over hand, as he pulls himself and beast across the chasm with the river far below.'"

—From National Geographic "Flashback," April 2002, National Geographic magazine
 

We teach emergency personnel how to more safely prepare for and approach large animal incidents such as overturned and wrecked trailers or livestock haulers, large animals loose on the road, large animals stuck in mud or ravines, and incidents where people might be trapped with the animal. There are too many stories of good-intended "heroic rescues" where the animal or it's rescuer is injured during the rescue, or even killed. Many of the rescue videos shown on TV demonstrate grotesque breaches of safety and technical skills, when viewed by safety officers, Paramedics, and Rescue experts.

We teach people about behavior of large animals in rescue situations, how to use the equipment your emergency department already owns to solve TLAER incidents, and how to interact with other resources that may already exist in your community to find an appropriate solution. NO TLAER INCIDENT IS EXACTLY THE SAME!

In several locations in the US there are specific TLAER trained rescue squads that are on call out to these types of scenarios. Leading the pack and providing training through the California State Fire Marshall's office is Felton Fire Department's Large Animal Rescue Extrication Unit, headed by Captain John Fox.  Others include the Winston-Salem Rescue Squad (NC), the Charleston Rescue Squad (SC), the Town of Wellington/Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Dept. (FL), and the Towns of Rancho-Cucomonga and Norco Fire/Rescue Departments in California.

These departments have invested in some of the specialized TLAER equipment necessary to more easily perform these rescues. They have in some cases developed and follow TLAER Standard Operating Procedures learned during the course when responding to incidents. Many of them have discovered that their TLAER equipment is useful for moving extremely large HUMAN patients, too!

Prints of
"Helping Hands, Helping Hearts"
by Equine Artist
David Pavlak
Are Available in both Signed and Unsigned Editions

Proceeds from the sale of these prints
Will be donated to the
Large Animal Rescue Endowment Fund at
Eastern Kentucky University (EKU)

For details contact
US Rider

This site last updated on 3 APR 2008 at 0704Q hours.        Contact Webmaster