Tag Archives: animal rescue

Equestrian Games, Paris 2024

BARTA director Jim Green has just returned from the Paris Olympics where he was invited by lead veterinarian Prof. Anne Couroucé to support a team of over 60 veterinary professionals who were on hand to ensure that riders and horses had the very best care throughout their time in Paris. Jim’s role was to take a central position on the cross country course and respond to any serious incident as rescue team leader. At each fence were two veterinary professionals, supported within their sector by a further two vets including an anaesthesia specialist. Responding with Jim were equine ambulance leads and FEI officials, the overseers of international equine eventing.  Preparedness also included planning for an emergency which might have involved Le Grand Canal, a huge water feature which took centre stage at the prestigious event in the grounds of the … Continue reading

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Conference 2024 – Next Steps

BARTA concluded our conference “Global Solutions to Tackle Local Issues” which was attended by 100 delegates from across the world. This was the first time the international community has met in person since California in 2017. Picking up on the key outcomes from the last conference and considering the accelerating impact of climate emergencies, the outcome of this conference is the first step in creating an International Community of Practice, designed to support each other in responding to community events affecting people and animals, to strengthen and develop our local initiatives. More details will follow, but here is an update from BARTA’s Josh Slater.

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BARTA Response to Recent Cow Incident

The recent incident involving a police responder immobilising a young heifer with a vehicle has caused outcry from many quarters. Viewing this approach looks terrible and it undoubtedly is. But it is not the first time that UK police have been criticised for the way they dealt with loose animals.* With that in mind, there is clearly an opportunity to identify why these situations are occurring and support our emergency responders in bringing animal incidents to a safe conclusion in the most appropriate and proportionate way. A key role of BARTA is to work with response agencies and emergency planners to identify foreseeable situations where animals and people are placed at risk and provide effective solutions through awareness, training and a collaborative approach to incident resolution. BARTA exists because there is no clear mandate or framework which recognises non disease … Continue reading

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BARTA Sign new MOU with ICPEM

BARTA are delighted to announce a new collaboration agreement with the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (ICPEM). In an increasingly precarious world, it is important to prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a variety of disruptive events, accidents and emergencies. With civil protection roots pre-dating World War II, ICPEM are the oldest learned society wholly dedicated to international disaster science studies and research. ICPEM is a membership body that is frequently consulted by government and industry for its professional views whilst providing professional development and support to its members. The Institute unites academics, policy makers and preparedness and response professionals, to benefit not just its members but the industries they work in and public communities across the world. Through promoting excellence in civil protection and emergency management ICPEM is dedicated to achieving better outcomes in disasters … Continue reading

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A day at the Bristol Zoo Project

Neil Rae, BARTA Project Manager was given an amazing opportunity to watch a range of procedures being carried out under general anesthetic on one of the Giraffes at the Bristol Zoo Project thanks to Will Walker, Curator of Mammals.  Along with Tony Ward from Resquip, a great supporter of BARTA, we had the opportunity to look at how our manual manipulation techniques and the animal rescue kit used by the Fire and Rescue Service animal rescue teams might be applied in this environment. We had brought along a strop guide, glide sheet, 7 metre strops and head carry sheets ready for use if needed. The whole procedure is time critical and with Giraffe under general anaesthetic, the strops and the head carry sheets proved their worth helping to support the weight of his neck whilst skidding his body into a … Continue reading

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New Resources – Lifting Project 2024

BARTA are creating a new suite of large animal rescue educational lifting films, with support from Farol Ltd, based in Oxfordshire, who generously supplied us with a telehandler for the filming. Ollie Bensted-Smith brought a Kramer KT3610 demonstrator to our training centre at the Horse Trust to demonstrate the advantages of a machine commonly available in an agricultural setting. Various scenarios were created to show the versatility of the telehandler such as lifting an animal to extract it from an entrapment or when in a restricted space such as a swimming pool. We are grateful to Animal Rescue Accredited Instructors from Buckinghamshire, Cheshire and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Services, who participated in the filming. As well as demonstrating the types of lifting machinery available, they also helped create new films showing the methods of safely applying harnesses to animals for … Continue reading

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Preparing for Equine Cross Country at the Paris Olympics

This weekend BARTA Director Jim Green will travel to France to meet Professor Anne Couroucé who is leading the equine veterinary response team at the Paris Olympics. Jim will visit the site of the equine cross country course at Versailles, before attending training at the military school of equitation in Fontainebleau. During 2 days of intensive preparation, Jim will support through delivery of practical training in safe management of a recumbent horse to vets and supporting professionals. In 2012 Jim supported the Vet Services Team during the Cross Country event at the London Olympics. More recently, BARTA have delivered event incident management training to staff from UK racecourses, following guidance from the BHA, detailing equipment and skills that are utilised in responding to foreseeable incidents.

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New Techniques for Racecourse Incident Response Teams in action!

Training by the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Care Association (BARTA) contributed to the success of an incident involving a racehorse named Battle Cry, who flipped over backwards in the starting stalls before a race at Doncaster last week. Racecourse Veterinary Surgeon Nigel Haizelden was immediately on scene and worked with the stalls team to swiftly resolve the situation which if not dealt with effectively, could have resulted in injury to the horse and those around it. Nigel sedated Battle Cry, to calm the situation and prevent him panicking. The stalls team immediately removed adjacent horses to create space and make it safe to work around the horse, placing a head sheet under him to protect his face and eye as he lay on the ground. A rescue strap was threaded around his chest and he was quickly slid from … Continue reading

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BEVA Equine Welfare Award 2023

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) recognised BARTA Director Jim Green during this year’s annual congress awards ceremony. The award for significant contribution to equine welfare was presented by HRH The Princess Royal and sponsored by the Blue Cross. BEVA and The Princess Royal have a long standing interest in the animal rescue initiative, having hosted a launch for the Emergency Services Protocol at Buckingham Palace in 2007. Following the launch, recognising the need for veterinarians to effectively support emergency service responders at incidents, BEVA president Professor Josh Slater established BEVA’s Safer Horse Rescue initiative and introduced training for veterinary professionals. Josh, himself a recipient of the BEVA Welfare Award in 2009 for his commitment to the animal rescue initiative went on to co-found BARTA with Jim in 2012 and remains on the Board of Directors. Through his time developing … Continue reading

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BARTA at the Emergency Services Show

BARTA and Resquip joined up once again to promote support for emergency responders at this years exhibition. Show organisers generously made provision for the team to showcase large animal rescue techniques with an extra space to demonstrate our life-size training mannequin horse and cow. This year’s BARTA team represented a variety of disciplines required to enable effective response to animal incidents including operational firefighters, large animal vet and small animal critical care specialist. We are so grateful for our wider team giving up their time to promote the good work that BARTA does for the community we represent. If you are an emergency responder, veterinary professional or involved in horse racing and eventing, check out opportunities to get involved through 2024. https://www.bartacic.org/training 2023 Emergency Services Show Highlights Video

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