FEMA Funding
Basic Animal Rescue Training is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved state-sponsored course that was designed to empower firefighters and other emergency personnel with the training, knowledge and equipment necessary to safely and effectively address the needs of animals encountered in emergency situations, in order to help preserve human health, safety and well-being. BART fulfills the requirements of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act enacted by Congress in 2006.
In March of 2008, the BART Small Animal course was certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency/US Department of Homeland Security (FEMA/DHS) as a state-sponsored course. DHS approval makes the BART Small Animal class a national standard course for training first responders in safe pet handling and rescue on the scene of emergencies.
As a DHS approved state-sponsored course, federal funding can be used to cover the cost of BART training. This money can be obtained through the planning and training categories of the FEMA funding grants. If you would like more information about BART training, please contact Kim Barrett at 1.612.282.2608 to obtain an estimate of training costs for your department. This estimate along with the letter below can be provided to your local county emergency managers.
You can get all this information online by going to http://www.fema.gov. Once there, go to the right gutter area under “Quick Links” and click on “Training”. Once there, scroll down and select the link titled “Training and Exercise Integration/ Training Operations”. Under the “View Training Catalogs”, select “State-sponsored”. You will find BART listed on page 9 under the RESPOND category and then again on page 194. The course label is MN-003-RESP, Basic Animal Rescue Training Small Animal Basic Life Support.
