Mobile shelter to finally be used

Thursday, March 16, 2006 | 6:50 a.m.

The problem with buying a $172,000 mobile animal shelter to help protect pets in an emergency - be it terrorism, fires or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes - is that you might wait years for those unwanted circumstances to occur.

After watching the mobile shelter that it acquired with federal Homeland Security funds sit unused for 16 months, Las Vegas' solution to that problem is to not wait for an emergency to press the equipment into service.

Rather than see the mobile shelter - unused since its acquisition in November 2004 except for a mock disaster drill last summer - perhaps gather dust for years, officials are looking at using it for occasional spay, neuter and vaccination clinics, as well as pet adoptions.

"Just because we got a Homeland Security grant doesn't mean it is going to sit there waiting for a disaster that maybe won't happen," said Roger Van Oordt, Las Vegas' animal control supervisor.

"I know a lot of agencies (police and fire) buy equipment and don't use it or it becomes obsolete, but we are going to put it to use while waiting for a disaster."

Later, when the kind of disaster for which it is intended inevitably occurs, officials believe the mobile shelter not only will help protect the Las Vegas Valley's four-legged denizens, but also could get their two-legged owners out of harm's way sooner.

Although animals' safety might seem a relatively low priority during a major disaster, last summer's Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how pets' evacuation can complement or hamper human evacuation efforts.

"There were people who wouldn't evacuate because they wouldn't leave their pets behind," said Andrew DuMond, a grant and project analyst for Nevada Homeland Security. "They consider their pets like a family member. But if you have an appropriate evacuation system, they are more willing to cooperate during an emergency situation."

Toward that end, area cities and Clark County are banding together to develop a joint plan to secure pets and other animals during a disaster. The pact is similar to the mutual aid agreements among Southern Nevada fire and police departments that allow for coordinated responses to emergencies.

At the center of the animal agreement is the mobile emergency animal shelter that Las Vegas purchased with a federal Homeland Security grant. North Las Vegas, Henderson, Las Vegas, Boulder City, Clark County and Mesquite are being asked to chip in up to $1,000 annually to share in its ownership and maintenance.

The mobile shelter, a 33-foot trailer with 33 cages, features a surgical suite where dogs, cats and other animals can be treated. The grant also paid for a 2005 Chevrolet pickup truck to haul the trailer.

The federal government allows Homeland Security grants to be used to deal with the needs of animals during disasters, Van Oordt noted in defending the purchase.

Without the trailer, a mass pickup of pets during a disaster would be impossible because animal control trucks can haul only a couple of dogs and cats at a time, he added.

In the meantime, it makes no sense, DuMond said, for the expensive mobile shelter to go unused for extended periods while waiting for an emergency.

Dale Smock, animal control manager of North Las Vegas, said the mobile shelter with its surgical suite is perfect for low-cost vaccinations and for procedures in which microchips - which can help locate lost pets - are implanted in animals.