We all love spending the long, sunny days of summer outdoors with our furry companions, but being overeager in hot weather can spell danger. To prevent your pet from overheating, take these simple precautions provided by ASPCA experts:

Visit the vet for a spring or early-summer checkup. Make sure your pets get tested for heartworm if they aren’t on year-round preventative medication.
Pets can get dehydrated quickly, so give them plenty of fresh, clean water when it’s hot or humid outdoors. Make sure your pets have a shady place to get out of the sun, be careful not to over-exercise them, and keep them indoors when it’s extremely hot.
Know the symptoms of overheating in pets, which include excessive panting or difficulty breathing, increased heart and respiratory rate, drooling, mild weakness, stupor or even collapse. Symptoms can also include seizures, bloody diarrhea and vomit along with an elevated body temperature of over 104 degrees.
Animals with flat faces, like Pugs and Persian cats, are more susceptible to heat stroke since they cannot pant as effectively. These pets, along with the elderly, the overweight, and those with heart or lung diseases, should be kept cool in air-conditioned rooms as much as possible.
Never leave your animals alone in a parked vehicle. Not only can it lead to fatal heat stroke, it is illegal in several states!
Do not leave pets unsupervised around a pool—not all dogs are good swimmers. Introduce your pets to water gradually and make sure they wear flotation devices when on boats. Rinse your dog off after swimming to remove chlorine or salt from his fur, and try to keep your dog from drinking pool water, which contains chlorine and other chemicals.
Open unscreened windows pose a real danger to pets, who often fall out of them. Keep all unscreened windows or doors in your home closed, and make sure adjustable screens are tightly secured.
Feel free to trim longer hair on your dog, but never shave your dog: The layers of dogs’ coats protect them from overheating and sunburn. Brushing cats more often than usual can prevent problems caused by excessive heat. And be sure that any sunscreen or insect repellent product you use on your pets is labeled specifically for use on animals.
When the temperature is very high, don’t let your dog linger on hot asphalt. Being so close to the ground, your pooch’s body can heat up quickly, and sensitive paw pads can burn. Keep walks during these times to a minimum.
Commonly used rodenticides and lawn and garden insecticides can be harmful to cats and dogs if ingested, so keep them out of reach. Keep citronella candles, tiki torch products and insect coils of out pets’ reach as well. Call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 if you suspect your animal has ingested a poisonous substance.
Remember that food and drink commonly found at barbeques can be poisonous to pets. Keep alcoholic beverages away from pets, as they can cause intoxication, depression and comas. Similarly, remember that the snacks enjoyed by your human friends should not be a treat for your pet; any change of diet, even for one meal, may give your dog or cat severe digestive ailments. Avoid raisins, grapes, onions, chocolate and products with the sweetener xylitol. Please visit our People Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets page for more information.
Please leave pets at home when you head out to Fourth of July celebrations, and never use fireworks around pets. Exposure to lit fireworks can potentially result in severe burns or trauma, and even unused fireworks can contain hazardous materials. Many pets are also fearful of loud noises and can become lost, scared or disoriented, so it’s best to keep your little guys safe from the noise in a quiet, sheltered and escape-proof area of your home

In two upcoming webinars, ASPCA disaster response experts Dr. Dick Green and Lacie Davis will discuss the need for all-hazard disaster planning and review critical components of response, including:
• Preparedness locally, regionally and statewide
• Equipment
• Training for responders
• Response team composition
• Hazards and team safety
• Assessment
• National and regional resources available to you

Animal welfare organizations, county and state response teams and emergency management professionals will especially benefit from these 60-minute webinars. If you’re an individual looking for opportunities to join disaster response efforts, be sure to join us, too.

Click here to watch the video
How to Respond to wildfires

Click here to watch the video
How to Respond to Hurricanes

S.M.A.R.T. helps celebrate the passage of Senate Bill 1172, an Act to ensure the safety of people with Pets in Disasters at the state house on June 4,2014.    S.1172 requires municipalities to include pets in their disaster planning, thereby protecting both pets and people. A sincere Thank you goes  Senator Karen Spilka, the sponsor of the bill, as well as to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in helping to get this bill passed.

During the sign up with SMART all members agree to get a CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) check done. This is standard procedure for most volunteer organizations. Until recently SMART has not been able to fund the CORI checks. Now thanks to assistance from the statewide MA Responds program we are able to have the cost of the CORI checks covered. For directions on signing into the MA Responds website and getting a CORI form ready to print and mail to Boston please refer to the directions here.  SMART admin will follow our members who have signed onto MA Responds and update the SMART database as CORI form clearance is documented for our members. Please help SMART by getting this task done ASAP.

As Hurricane Season Starts, Households in Coastal States Urged to Include Pets in Disaster Plans

With predictions for an active hurricane season this year, community leaders and residents in East Coast and Gulf Coast states should keep pets in mind when planning for natural disasters. People can take some simple – but critical – steps to keep their pets safe and healthy in severe weather and possible evacuations.

Legislators can help by sharing this information with local officials and including this information in Facebook posts, releases, newsletters and other avenues information is distributed to constituents.

The most important thing to remember when preparing for severe weather is, if it’s not safe for you, it’s not safe for your pets. Whether you shelter-in-place or evacuate, people should be prepared to keep your pets with you and make sure you have adequate supplies. AccuWeather forecasters predict an active and strong hurricane season from June to November, with the potential for three named storms to make landfall in the U.S. Pet owners can reduce their animals’ chances of being at risk during a disaster by following the suggestions below.

Things you can do right now:    

• Put a collar with visible identification on your pets, including indoor-only pets.
• Make sure your pets are up to date on vaccinations.
• Keep pictures of your pets on hand for identification purposes. Ideally, you should also be in the photo.
• Create a pet emergency kit (see below) and refresh the items every few months.
• Talk to your neighbors about how they can help your pets if you are not at home when disaster strikes. Make a list of boarding facilities inland and know their vaccinations requirements.
• Create a list of hotels that allow pets. Plan on evacuating about 100 miles inland.
• Contact your city or town to see what plans they have in place for your locality.

Pet emergency kits should include: 

• Minimum of a three-day supply of food in airtight, waterproof containers and drinking water.
• Bowls for food and water.
• Current photos and physical description of your pets, including details on markings.
• Medications, vaccination records and first aid pet supplies. Name and number for your veterinarian.
• Comfort items such as a toy and blanket.
• Small garbage bags.
• For small dogs include: a sturdy carrier large enough to use as a sleeping area and a leash and collar.
• For large dogs include: a collar and leash.
• For cats include: litter and litter box and a sturdy carrier large enough for transport and for your cat to use as a temporary “apartment” for several days.
• For horses include: Coggins tests, veterinary papers, identification photographs and vital information such as medical history and emergency phone numbers.

For more information, visit: www.hsus.org/disaster, www.smart-ma.org (State of Massachusetts Animal Response Team) and www.mspca.org/disaster.

During the week of April 8, 2013, the Tufts Shelter Medicine Program at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine provided a week long course covering Emergency Response and Disaster Medicine. Instructors included representatives from the State of Massachusetts Animal Response Team (SMART), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), MSPCA, ASPCA, MVMA and Tufts faculty. The course featured an introduction to the incident command system, animal sheltering in disasters, large animal rescue and emergency medicine in disasters as well as recent man-made and natural disasters such as the Midwest flooding and a variety of cruelty response cases.  The course concluded with a table top drill to test the students’ abilities.  One day of the course included the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association’s program on Veterinary Practice Continuity, Planning and Recovery.  We, at SMART, look forward to seeing these new veterinarians join us as capable trained volunteers available when the need arises.

The ASPCA has a great source of information titled “What would happen to your pet in an emergency?” Preparation and planning is an important aspect in keeping you and your family safe in the event of an emergency. Your Pets are your family too and including them in your preparedness plan is a must. Check out this great resource, and sign up to be on their email update list. They will send you a free Pet Safety Pack for your pets. Click the link below to get more information and your free safety pack !
ASPCA: What would happen to your pet in an emergency Safety Pack

Last Friday, State Senator Karen Spilka filed a bill called An Act ensuring the safety of people with pets in disasters, currently Senate Docket 1101.

State senators and state representatives have until next Friday to co-sponsor this bill. Please contact your legislators to ask them to co-sponsor SD 1101. If you do not know who your state legislators are, you can find out at www.wheredoivotema.com and look for “Rep and Senator in General Court”.

What would this bill do?
• improve public safety; we keep people safe by keeping their animals safe
• require emergency plans to address household pets and service animals before, during and after an emergency or disaster (including evacuation and sheltering)
• address the needs of displaced citizens with household pets during disasters, which helps to mitigate the public health issue of evacuation failure related to animal ownership

The bill simply amends Section 1 and 13 of Special Law Chapter S31 to include in the definition of “civil defense” the evacuation of household pets and service animals and to require each political subdivision of the commonwealth who establishes a local organization for civil defense in accordance with the state civil defense plan and program to ensure that any emergency plan of operations shall include strategies to support the needs of people with household pets and the needs of household pets under their care, including service animals. Such local organization for civil defense shall take appropriate steps to educate the public regarding the resources available in the event of an emergency and the importance of emergency preparedness planning.

As you know, at the Federal level, the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act requires states accepting federal funding for homeland security preparedness under the Stafford Act to provide for animals in their state-level disaster plans and planning. The Federal law, however, does not address the other levels of government where local decisions are made. If the local civil defense agencies do not include provisions for animals, there will be nothing for the Federal government to reimburse and this important public safety issue – failure to evacuate and shelter – will remain a barrier to a more orderly, safe and effective evacuation to the benefit of all our citizens. Many other states, including Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina have already passed state legislation to accomplish this goal.

At least, that’s what it feels like!!

No matter how significant the event or how much of a need we anticipate, SMART can actually only deploy when it is asked to do so, either by the state, local emergency management officials or by other organizations.

In a situation like Sandy, we started preparing days ahead of the storm so that we would be ready in the event that we were needed. Some of you responded immediately to that request, only to wait several days before we were able to let you know definitively if your services were needed.

While we do get back to everyone immediately with a “standby” notice, we may not actually know for quite some time if you will be deployed.

We know that it can be frustrating and, at times, can also be difficult to plan your life around the possibility of deployment. And we do appreciate your patience.

But this is also very much the name of the game in disaster response. We all line up available resources so that we’re ready to go if needed and then we just have to wait for the official word on how many people are actually needed, with what skills/experience and where.

So, for those of you who are new to SMART, be aware that this is part of the process and we will do everything we can to minimize the waiting time, but sometimes it’s just unavoidable.