On Thursday, March 3, VCA Charities awarded a $20,000 Disaster Relief grant to the Los Angeles County Fire Foundation in support of its Search Dog Team, a highly trained canine search and rescue unit that is part of FEMA’s California Task Force 2 (CF-TF2)—one of the leading disaster response teams in the United States.
CA-TF2 deploys an elite team of Los Angeles County firefighters along with search and rescue dogs to locate and extricate victims trapped or missing as a result of natural or manmade disasters. CA-TF2 has responded to some of the most horrific disasters in modern history, including: the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Nepal earthquake in 2015, Hurricanes Harvey and Maria and the Mexico City earthquake in 2017, and the 2018 Montecito, California mudslides.
While VCA Charities is committed to helping pets find and remain in loving homes, the charity is also committed to supporting communities in crisis—especially in its home state of California. The Charities grant will enable comprehensive veterinary care and resources for each of the 18 canines through 2023. In addition to veterinary care, Royal Canin is generously supporting each of the canines through a year of Royal Canin and Eukanuba food. This grant allowed CA-TF 2 to build a best in class training facility in California for their canine teams, preparing them to respond to both domestic and international disasters.