Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, Dla and friends, Welcome to Cautaitude. I have an
incredible show today and I am just very excited to
speak to our next guests and express my gratitude for
all they do. I want to start first by talking
about the show. So this show came into my view
by the NAVC. The NADC is the North American Veterinary Community,
and my guests today were recipients of NADC Gives, which
recognizes and supports organizations that make a significant difference in
the lives of veterinary professationals and animals. And typically the
awards are given to grassroots efforts that make a real
impact in local communities across the country. Now we're talking
about North America. We're focusing on a situation that happened
in the US and Texas, but I think this was
seen around the world. We're gonna talk about it in
just a minute, so stay tuned and I can't wait
to welcome my guests to We'll be right back.
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Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome any Easton of
Rancher Navy and Rick Browdy of Wings of Rescue. So
you were both recipients of the twenty twenty five NAVC
gibs which recognizes your efforts. So you each received ten
thousand dollars and recognized your efforts during the floods in
Central Texas this summer, and that was when the Guadalupe
River rose. It varies a little twenty six to twenty
nine feet depending on where I research, but it rose
within forty five minutes. A lot of people probably remember
that it was near campsite unfortunately by young children, and
it was just horrific to watch. But why I want
to have this show today and I want to have
it on Catitude. And you know, even though it's based
in Texas, it's just one example of the amazing dedication
and commitment of nonprofits that support animal rescue during times
of devastation. I live in South Florida, Hurricaneville. I've witnessed devastation.
So thank you for what you do. Your organizations are incredible.
So Amy you are with the Rancher Navy. What does
Rancher Navy do well.
Speaker 5: We are an organization here in Texas and we offer
aid to those in the agricultural community during natural disasters.
We've worked Heleen, we did work some of the floods
that were in West Virginia. We've done the wildfires that
have been in Texas as well as the floods. And
we are here to assist those in our agricultural community,
including those who have pets, to get them to aid
that they need during these natural disasters.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, And you know what, in a lot
of my research and videos, one of the things that
stood with me was a gentleman that it was horrific
of the devastation that he witnessed, but he escaped with
him and his cat, a tuxedo cat. That was it. Rick.
Welcome you are with Wings of Rescue. Can you tell
us what Wings of Rescue does well.
Speaker 6: Wings of Rescues mission is to fly at risk pets
from disaster areas and overcrowded shelters to shelters where there's
empty kennel space and waiting adopters, and at the same
time not displacing local shelter pets. And then we also
provide free span uters to low income families pets. So
since our insection in twenty twelve, we've flun eighty two thousand,
three hundred and thirty seven pets to safety. We've delivered
nine hundred and six thousand pounds of humanitarian and veterinary
aid to disaster victims, and we've responded to every natural
disaster in North America. We've let it in all fifty states,
eight provinces in Canada, and about sixteen Caribbean nations.
Speaker 2: Thank you for all you do. What is the largest
pet you've ever transported for animals?
Speaker 6: Animal is probably a pot belly pig. The weigh four
hundred and fifty.
Speaker 2: Pounds a pot belly pig.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we've flown miniature horses, cockatoos, foxes, skunks, hedgehogs, cats, dogs,
pretty much any small animal.
Speaker 2: Oh small, four five hundred pounds, okay if that fits small.
But it's amazing what you do. Let's talk about the
Central Texas flood that happened so quickly. Let's start with you, Amy.
What was your reaction and how were you able to
mobilize and get this in gear just like this little snapshot.
What was it like for your organization to know When
did you realize, oh my gosh, this is horrific and
we have to get rolling. So we're able to do
what we do well.
Speaker 5: I will start with saying that my daughter was a
camper at Camp Mystic, which was the girls camp that
was affected by this flood. So she had been there
over twelve years, and so I had a lot of
ties to the camp and had been notified in the
middle of the night that there was a situation down there.
As a matter of fact, I got my phone call
at five am, and the minute I got the phone call,
I got out to our executive team, who put the
call out to our volunteers that we needed to be
on standby. One of the things that our organization has
is a mounted search and rescue team. Knowing the terrain
down there, I knew that they would be needed. They
would be able to get into places that people on
foot would not be able to access.
Speaker 2: Mounted, meaning on horses.
Speaker 5: Mounted. Being on horses and having worked in east the
eastern part of the US and during Helene, we also
had pies to some canine teams that we knew we
would be able to access to help us as well.
So half of our team deployed got ready to deploy
to go down to southern Texas to help with those efforts,
while the rest of our team started getting our lists
together of potential items that we would need to be
able to help the farmers, ranchers, and pet owners, whether
that be fencing equipment or fencing supplies, water supplies because
we knew that that was going to be critical in
a time like this, as well as feed feed for
all animals, whether it be a dog or a cat,
or a horse or a cow. Chickens. We had lots
of need for chicken feed as a matter of fact,
that was kind of unusual this particular disaster. So we
divided and conquered and started reaching out to our extensive
database of volunteers to get everybody on standby.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: I am incredibly amazed you were so able to just
function and get everything done, especially with your personal ties
to the camp.
Speaker 5: I think a little background on me the way I
got involved in Ranch or Navy is I was a
recipient of their help when my ranch in Texas burned,
ten thousand acres burned, including my home.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 5: So it seemed to be very calm in a crisis,
the animals and the people first, before you know, whatever
personal ties I have. And it was interesting. I received
a phone call from my daughter and the first thing
she said to me she wasn't there, she had been
a camper, but she called me and immediately she said
to me, Mom, all of these camps have horse programs,
and I'm worried about the horses. Can you and your
group help them?
Speaker 2: Somebody has to speak for them. They don't speak, They can't,
you know, pick up the phone. So okay, Well that
must have been definitely challenging.
Speaker 6: Rick.
Speaker 2: What was it like for you when you first heard
about this design?
Speaker 6: Well, it was really depressing because I knew people in
Kirk County, and you know, you just worry about their
safety first. But as soon as it happened, I think
it was the night of July fourth that we were
made aware of things going downhill. We just started reaching
out to all the shelters there because we knew that
they were going to be receiving quite a lot of
pets that would be displaced by the disaster. And what
often happens in these situations is they euthanize all the
pets that are in the shelter prior to the disaster
to make room for the ones that are coming in.
We didn't want that one to happen, so we reached
out to all the shelters that we knew of in
that area and were able to arrange flights to safety
for over one thousand pets. Our first flight was on
July eighth, because we had to get heal certificates and
get these pets into San Angelo where we could land
safely and transport the pads out, and so we just
kept coming in bringing in supplies. We brought in I
believe something just under twenty thousand pounds worth of humanitarian
and that Nary aid, so that people would have food
for their pets and other supplies, medicines and whatnot, and
so we were able to just respond very quickly, and
for that next two weeks, we're just flying out pretty
much every other day.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing how you got involved, because that
was interesting, even though I'm so sorry for your devastation
and your loss. Rick, how did you get involved because
you started Wings of Rescue right.
Speaker 6: I did not start Rings of Rescue. Coody else started it.
I came into Wings. It was started in twenty twelve.
I came in in May of twenty fourteen, and I
was running the operations since twenty seventeen. We started out
as just moving basically pats out of California, where I
was living in the time, into the Pacific Northwest, and
then we grew into you know, an international operation. It
started with hurricanes Maria, Harvey, and Urma basically is what
really put us in the disaster business. And I think
we've responded to every hurricane, volcano, earthquake, and the flood
and wildfire since then. The LA wildfires were really big
for us this year. We had to do a lot
of flights out of there. I now live in South
Florida too, like you and it's you know, you're just
sitting there watching the weather all the time, just like
what's going to happen next. And we want to make
sure that with our flights that we move out the
pets that are in disasters prior to the disaster. We
get those out of the shelters, and we don't touch
any of the pets that come in after disaster for
thirty days as you want them to be reunited with
their families. And that's what we're trying to do, is
get that done so that nobody dies to may roup
for the incoming pets and that the pets will be
reunited with the families who hopefully will come and get them.
Speaker 2: Okay, wow, that's wonderful. How many pets can fit, so
say if you just have dogs and cats, no, you know,
huge dogs. How many fit on a plane.
Speaker 6: Depends what type of flags and views. We did one
flight from Owaii. It had seven hundred pats using a
C one thirty hercules, which you know, was pretty big plane,
one of the biggest ones that's out there. Our normal
planes will hold between you know, we do it on
a point system because there's no one size fits all.
The other day I had and seventy cats on one fly.
Speaker 2: Was that like a course of mews.
Speaker 6: It's kind of funny. They all fall asleep once we
hit ten thousand feet. They're in the same cabin than
we are, but once we hit ten thousand feet they're
all quiet. And then we come down and it's like
having a you know, train, three year olds asking are
we there yet?
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Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to the NABC GIBS recipients,
Wings of Rescue and ranch or Navy. They were both
recipients of the award from an ABC for their work
with the floods in Central Texas. Okay, so I'd like
to ask both of you, were there any moments during
the flooding, that's during this disaster that really surprised you.
That's a very hard question, just whatever you think of
top of your head.
Speaker 5: I think the thing that did surprise me about this
particular disaster was how quickly the water rose, and it
was how quickly the water rose and it We have
seen floods, and I've seen hurricanes, but because of the
terrain in which this river lies, the amount of devastation
and how quickly there was so much devastation, I was
rather surprised. We had mostly worked with wildfires. We had
worked a couple of hurricanes, but very few floods. So
that's probably what surprised me the most.
Speaker 2: Wow, what surprised you the most?
Speaker 6: Well, it was kind of interesting to me and surprise
in a very pleasant way. Was we would land and
we were landing in San Angelo, and there were people
that had lost their houses, lost every possession, and they
were there to help move the paths out of the
shelters with no regard to their own situations. And not
only were they there, but they were cheerful and there
was nobody talking about politics or anything like that. They
were just talking about we want to save these pets.
And it was kind of the triumph of the human
spirit that I thought you don't normally see in this
you know, fractious days where people were getting together from
you know, all nationalities, because there were Hispanic people there
as well. Everybody was getting along and everybody was there
for the pets, and it was just a lot of
selfless effort and that really surprised me because I've seen
a lot of that dissipate in America over the last year.
Speaker 2: That is good to hear. As you were talking about this,
I could feel just the emotions of what you're describing
and trying to actually be there, and the selflessness of
these people was incredible. We need more of that. So, Rick,
how do you stay calm during moments of crisis? I
mean naturally calm?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's a natural thing. You know, I've
survived in airplane crash once. I guess I figured once
I did that, I could do anything, you know, and
remain calm, because there's use and tannic. Quite frankly, it
doesn't achieve anything. So, you know, if you try and
detach yourself a certain way and not allowing yourself to
be caught in the emotion of a situation, because you know,
you're there to do a job and to do a
job quickly and efficiently, and you want to also be
able to do it with compassion for the people that
are affected, and you know, so you just have to
stay within yourself.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Amy, how do you say come during
you know, times of crisis. This is you know, your home,
your area, how do you do it?
Speaker 5: I have to agree with rig. You do compartmentalize everything
when you get there. You you have a job to do,
and the people that we are working with it's it's
quite possibly the worst day of their life. And I
agree with him. We're there to do a job. We
have tasks to do, and you know, we have to
do it with compassion. Everybody that is there that is
being affected, they are truly in crisis and they need
a calming, soothing voice, and so we try to we
try to be those people as well. That's kind of
what we have learned. You know, we a lot of
times when we come to a crisis like this. You
know a lot of us have been there, We've done
this before, and so we try to be the calming voice,
the one who is forward thinking because they can't think
at that moment in time about what are the next steps?
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you Amy. What would you say is the
number one thing for our listening audience? So we have
most of our listeners are in the US, cat levers,
they might have dogs. Also, what would you say is
the most important thing that they need to be aware of,
just in case there's a natural disaster, because with global
warming and all that kind of stuff, there's strange things
happening everywhere. I'm waiting for a blizzard in South Florida,
tell you the truth, because I mean floods in the
mountains and there's all kinds of crazy. So what would
you tell people, which you know, like I said, mostly
cat lovers, that they should This is what you should
do just in case anything happens.
Speaker 5: My best advice for those of you who have pets
at home is to make sure that your animals are chipped,
were well identified. When they do get separated from their humans,
people like Rick and myself are trying to reunite them,
and with cats and dogs it's very easy. You can
chip them. With larger animals, whether it be a hot
belly pig or a horse, if a disaster is impending,
you know, if you do not have a way to
brand your horse or tattoo your horse, make sure that
they have a neck band on or a halter on,
or some kind of something on them that identifies them
so that we can try to reunite them or at
least house them. Until we can find them proper home.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, Rick. What would you tell our listening audience?
Speaker 6: Well, I think and you spot on what you said
about microchips, there's so important. Another thing that you have
to remember is if you move, you change your telephone number,
you have to update that on your microchip registration because
they won't find you otherwise. And the other thing is
in natural disasters. The one thing I've learned is, especially
if you've got cats, you need to have crates ready.
Everybody should have a crate so that you could put
your cat in a crate, because it's really hard to
wrangle a cat in a hurricane or in a flood,
and you want to be able to transport them quickly
out of if you have to evacuate, So having supplies,
having some food around, but making sure that you have
a plan and a fact of where you're going to go,
how you're going to get your pet to where you're
going to go, and knowing what's within your region. You know,
is there a church that's a central place that you
and your family can meet up with your pets. If
let's say your wife or your husband is somewhere else,
Is there a place that you can meet. In the
LA wildfires, we found that so many people just couldn't
find each other because a lot of the cell phone
towers were out. So you just have to be prepared,
and especially for cat owners, that's the hardest thing to
just plan for. It is you just have to have
a microchip, neck band, would a caller would be great,
but also keep your registration up to date, and please
have a crate buy then you can transport your cat
in because don't think you can carry your cat throughout
a disaster.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 2: And for everyone listening I've learned from other shows, worst
case if you have that cat that you just cannot
get hold of pillowcases, help put them in the pillowcase,
then get them loose in the crate. But it helps
you know because during the time of natural disaster, if
you have to leave, you want to get your cat.
And it doesn't matter if you scare your cat a little.
Your cat's already probably freaked, but you want to get
your cat in the crate. Any with Ranch or Navy,
do you have any numbers on how many supplies were
delivered to those in need?
Speaker 5: We do, Actually we did deliver eight thousand pounds of
animal feed to local small animal shelters. They're in the
Central Texas area. We did sixty five pallets of livestock feed,
five hundred square veils of hay, one hundred round veils
of hay, and we did thirty tons of essential supplies,
whether that would be water, buckets, fencing supplies, electrolytes for
the animals. And we were very very lucky that our
National Guard helped us transport a lot of these these
items across Central Texas for US.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, that's wonderful. Wick. How many pets were displaced
and that you helped reunite with their families through Wings
of rescue.
Speaker 6: That was done by the ones that stayed in the area.
We took the pets that were in the shelters prior
to the disaster. Those are the ones we flew out
so that these pets that were coming in had a
safe place to go to without anybody dying to make
room for them. So we took about one thousand and
sixty seven of pets out.
Speaker 2: I understand what you do, but if you hadn't removed
the pets from the shelters, the ones that were there
that went to the shelters wouldn't have a place to go.
Speaker 1: It would have been killed.
Speaker 2: My bad, I should have word the question better. But
one thousand and sixty seven, in much respect, would you
have done anything differently with Wancho Navy? Is there anything
looking behindsight and saying I wish we would have done this?
Speaker 5: Not in this particular situation. The thing that I don't
think we were quite prepared for being an agricultural organization.
The agricultural need wasn't as large as the need for pets,
so we normally would bring in large animal supplies, hey, livestock, feed,
fencing supplies, items like that. There the need, and this
particular situation was more for household pets. That we were
very very fortunate that we have a very large reach
and we were able to get from a lot of
those supplies donated and transported to help those people out,
as well a number of animal rescues as well as
the Humane Society who did take in a lot of
large animals as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, Rick. Is there anything with Wings of
Rescue that you would have done differently?
Speaker 6: Not really, because we have already laid in a supply,
you know, an emergency supply, so we had crates ready,
We had our friends at Kudley were you know, very
generous with donations of dog foods. We had medicine. The
Humane Society in North Texas is an amazing organization and
they brought so much stuff, you know, made medications available
and so much other stuff that we were able to
just going in right away. So it was almost as
if we had planned the whole thing out. We were ready.
We were ready within twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: Incredible. I want to thank you both so much for
coming on Catitude. Where can our listeners find out more
about your organizations? You're both nonprofit and I would like
our listeners to know more about you and if they
want to donate possibly volunteer, Amy, can you go first?
Speaker 5: And yes, the Rancher Navy does have a website, It's
Ranchernavy dot org, as well as we are on all
of the social media platforms. Again, we are a five
oh one C three. We mostly do emergency response in
the state of Texas. However, we have recently in the
last two years, responded to disasters in other parts of
the US.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you and Rick. Where can people find out
more about Wings of Rescue?
Speaker 6: When you can get it Wings Rescue dot org or
you can do it our Facebook page which has about
a half million five and we have Instagram and threads
and I think we might have a TikTok then going
as well. Just you'll learn about it. There are lots
of videos on YouTube and you can see what we
do in real time.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you both so much for what
you do, thanks to your organizations. We appreciate it so much.
So thank you, and congrats on your NAVC Gives award.
Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: What an incredible show, I mean truly amazing to find
out what these organizations do for those of you listening.
This occurred July fourth to seventh and twenty twenty five
in Central Texas. It was the Guadalupe River. You can
view it, you know, the devastation of course on YouTube
or something to see the just the devastation that was done.
Thank you, WANs Or Navy and Wings of Rescue. I
also want to just put out a little this climber
if you will. I know we're a cat touted and
we're about cats, but many of us have ties to
other animals in our lives. You know, we might have horses,
as well or dogs. But it's important to be aware
of organizations that would do what they do during natural disasters. Aaron,
we have some great tips as well as micro chipping
and having a crate available for your cat. You would
not believe how many people I've run into that have
like six cats two crates. How do you do that?
Three cats and a crate?
Speaker 6: That's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: So great advice even you know though it was not
specifically cat based, So I hope you have enjoyed the show.
I want to find my cats, Dennis, Charlotte and Mollie.
Dennis walks into his crate. Mollie would be a challenge,
and Charlotte I would have to run all over the
place to try to get her in a crate. But
I would do it if it was ever a disaster.
And yes, I do have enough praise for all of them.
Actually I have an extrap for so thank you, and
thanks to my guests and me from wind Maybe and
Rick from wins A Rescue for coming on Catitude. Thanks
to my listening audience. I know we aren't just focused
on cats, but I appreciate you listening to this episode.
It's important to be aware of these organizations that help
us out during devastation, please be sure to visit their website.
You can learn a lot of great information and of
course thank you to my producer Mark Winter for all
the magic keyworks to make every episode sound amazing. And remember,
lose that attitude, have catitude.
Speaker 4: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on Petlifradio
dot com.
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