Episode 104: Disaster Preparedness

Beth Gammie from RedRover joins us to talk about disaster preparedness. RedRover is a nonprofit whose mission is to help animals in crisis and to protect and strengthen the bond between people and animals through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance, and education.

Beth leads the RedRover Responders program by monitoring disasters and other emergencies for deployment, managing requests for assistance and serving as RedRover's Team Leader in the field when animals are in crisis.

Learn about the amazing work Beth and RedRover do for both people and animals in crisis, from natural disaster relief to domestic violence support. Beth also gives some tips on how you and your pets can be prepared for disasters.

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Transcript

Mikel Delgado [0:23] Hello everybody and welcome to this week’s edition of the Good Dog Pod! I am Dr. Mikel Delgado, your host today. You may know July is Emergency Preparedness Month here at Good Dog. I’m very excited about today’s guest from the organization Red Rover. Red Rover is a nonprofit that helps animals in crisis and works to strengthen the human/animal bond in many ways. Among the many services they provide, Red Rover temporarily shelters animals displaced during disasters, they provide funding to pet owners and good samaritans to help them care for animals in life-threatening situations, and they also provide education to increase empathy for animals. So today we’re talking to Beth Gammie, the Director of Field Services at Red Rover. She monitors disasters and emergencies. She monitors requests for help and responses in the field when animals are in crisis. And she’s got a pretty interesting background. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois, and she has a master’s degree in counseling from Arizona State University. Beth, thank you so much for joining us on the Good Dog Pod today.

Beth Gammie [1:23] Hey, Mikel! Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

MD [1:27] As we get started, can you just tell me a little bit about Red Rover? I know I gave kind of a very high-level view, but what does Red Rover do?

BG [1:35] You did a really great job of explaining what we do in a nutshell. We have three major programs. The program that I work in is the responders’ program. As you mentioned, we provide services and help for animals in natural disasters and cruelty cases. We’ll probably talk more about some other situations as well. We also help out with TNRs and help disadvantaged communities with animal welfare. In fact, we’re doing a vaccination clinic in West Texas this weekend. And then we have our relief program, which (as you mentioned) provides help and resources for people with their pets and good samaritans who are helping animals with life-threatening conditions. Part of the relief program is we also provide help and services for domestic violence survivors’ pets. 

MD [2:30] Amazing. So much great work.

BG [2:30] We’ll probably talk about that, too, in more detail. And then our humane education program: Red Rover Readers, which is just really fantastic in teaching educators and volunteers how to work with kids in schools to help develop and strengthen their empathy and teach them about animals and why it’s important to be kind to them.

MD [2:54] That’s awesome. I always like to learn a little bit about my guest’s background. How did you end up working at Red Rover? Was this the career you had envisioned? I know you went to law school. Did you always think you would have a career working with animals and helping them, or was this a total 180 for you at some point?

BG [3:10] It’s funny. I never thought I would have a career helping animals. I just thought it was going to be something I would do. I (like all of us I’m sure) have helped stray animals throughout my life and volunteered with rescue groups and done dog transports and all of that. I practiced law for over 20 years. I had a great career and really didn’t want that to be the only thing I did professionally. So I went back to school to get my masters in counseling and completed that. While I was doing that, I started volunteering with Red Rover, with the responders’ program and loved it. Loved it! And I thought cool! This is how slow I am to catch on. I thought cool, this is going to be something I can volunteer and do the rest of my life. I kept signing up for deployments and just found it a very meaningful way to help animals and their people. And then my position opened up, what was the Emergency Services Manager when I started. I just never envisioned that until I volunteered with Red Rover. I didn’t even know this was a way you could help animals. It kind of opened up disaster response and cruelty response as something I never thought of. I think that’s something that a lot of people who want to help animals and want to make a career out of it just don’t know about. Anyway, I tossed my hat into the ring 10 years ago, and the rest is history. I’ve been with Red Rover ever since and have just been totally grateful to be in this position and to do the work I’m doing.

MD [4:50] That’s amazing. You hinted that you’re the Director of Field Services and you said the word “deployment,” so what does that look like? If you’re going out to a site, what does your daily work look like? How do you even know how to get help where it’s needed? Can you just tell us a little bit about the work you’re actually doing?

BG [5:09] Of course. We are available to help any community in the United States and Canada when there’s a natural disaster or a cruelty case. Like a puppy mill or hoarding seizure. And when the number of animals is just too great for the local jurisdiction to manage. We help set up and staff temporary animal shelters. Sometimes we’re helping in their brick-and-mortar shelter, and that’s where they’re housing the animals from the disaster. I’m the point of contact for Red Rover. So all they would need to do is reach out to me: bgammie@redrover.org is a great way to reach out to me. I just talk with them and get a handle on what the situation is, the number of animals, how many people they’re looking for. Throughout that process, I can let them know about resources, other resources that are out there and other partners that can help. Then we reach out and activate our volunteer base, and we have over 4,000 volunteers. We reach out to volunteers in that area/region. Every deployment is different, but there’s some commonality. You have a natural disaster. You usually have people evacuating with their pets. Sometimes we’re setting up and operating a temporary shelter right by the Red Cross shelter. So people with pets don’t stay in the human shelter. They stay at the nearby temporary shelter, and we help take care of the animals. Feeding them, watering them, cleaning cages, managing all the huge amounts of donations that come in. We’re usually working side-by-side with people from that jurisdiction or other volunteers, humane societies. I remember on the first deployment I did in Arizona as a volunteer, it was just this little city sprung up at this county fair ground. All of a sudden, you’ve got palates of food and all these dog and cat cages set up and all these workers. It just becomes a temporary little city of people all dedicated to helping the animals. People coming by with donations—because they just want to help! And then a population of cats and dogs and in natural disasters, we get all kinds of animals. Pocket pets. In Superstorm Sandy, one 10-year-old brought his goldfish. We’re just there to work and support the efforts of the jurisdiction on the ground. We never just show up. We never just hear about a situation and just show up and self-deploy. In disaster response, that can really make things complicated. We always work within the emergency response system. We need to be asked in by the jurisdiction that has authority to take care of the animals. Part of my job is, when we hear of things going on, we reach out to them and say, “Hey. We come in, free of charge. We work under you. We follow your direction.” We’ll offer suggestions, but we’re just a really good partner that way. Sometimes cities and counties are a little bit wary of animal groups coming in. 

MD [8:40] Sure. I mean, there’s legal issues, right?

BG [8:42] Yeah, there’s legal issues. It’s a chaotic time. The last thing they need is a group coming in and just freelancing. A lot of my work on the phone is just saying, “We work under the incident command system” (which is the emergency response management system that animal control and law enforcement work under). A lot of times when they hear that, they’re like, “Oh, okay! This is someone that’s going to be for us.” 

MD [9:05] You know what you’re doing. 

BG [9:10] And we’re responsible. Because they have to trust. It’s just really fantastic, meaningful work. For anyone listening to this—if this sparks any kind of interest, we’d love to have you as a volunteer. Our volunteers that do this say that this is the most meaningful volunteering they’ve done in helping animals.

MD [9:33] Wow. How long does a deployment usually last? Does it depend on the severity of the situation? 

BG [9:38] We typically are on the ground from about 7-10 days. In longer disasters, worse situations, we may go back several times. But that’s just how long we were able to stay. Temporary shelters are sometimes up and running for a lot longer than that. We helped with a cat-hoarding case in Florida, and that shelter was open for about 5 months. If a case worked through the legal system. 

MD [10:10] I imagine your counseling degree has come in handy. I’m just curious because we hear a lot about compassion fatigue and the mental strain of doing this kind of work. Do you find that you need to decompress after a deployment to be able to deal with the stress and what you’ve seen? 

BG [10:27] Yeah, I do. I just have always been very interested and compassionate towards people, as well as animals. I think that’s partly why I love Red Rover. We really are about the human/animal bond and helping people as well. Yeah, I need to decompress. I’ll tell you the one thing that surprised me… I noticed this after my first deployment. I’m such a marshmallow. I, of course, hate to see animals suffer. I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to manage it. I think I was very surprised at how nourishing it was for me as a person to be there, helping. I, of course, saw some difficult things, but working side-by-side with like-minded people—it’s so encompassing. It is a crisis. You’re there. You make such tight bonds with the people you work with. I’m always surprised by how much I actually laugh and really crack up with the people I’m working with. But, yes, I’m really good about self-care. We’re also really good about keeping an eye on our volunteers and making sure they’re doing okay, too. 

MD [11:48] As I mentioned before, this is Disaster Preparedness Month at Good Dog. Maybe you can talk a little bit about—based on what you’ve observed and learned in your years at Red Rover and going to places where there have been natural disasters and evacuations—what are the top things that pet owners should be doing to be prepared in general for disasters? 

BG [12:05] There’s lists of things to collect and all of that. But just generally, to have in your mind, think: Where would I go and how would I get there safely with my pets? It’s really helpful to have, just to know, the hotel/motel chains that have pet-friendly housing or folks, friends, family that you could get to outside of your region. It depends on how big the disaster is. The second thing that’s sometimes more challenging is how to get there safely with your animals. For a lot of people, that really comes down to just having carriers and crates for all your animals. When this hits, you don’t have time to run out and do that shopping. You’re going to be very absorbed with getting everything together and getting out of there. You may not have a lot of time. So have that at your house. I personally have carriers for all of my cats. It’s the kind of thing that’s hard to get at the last minute. We have those. For dog owners, you think oh my dog is friendly. I can keep them on a leash. I really suggest having a crate big enough for them to stay in. You never know what kind of place you’re going to be staying. You may be trying to talk your way into a hotel that doesn’t allow pets. It’s really helpful to say, “Hey, I can keep my dog in the crate.” Some of the emergency animal shelters—the ones where you are able to stay with your pet, right by your cot—you need to have a crate or a carrier for your cat. Those are really the big things. Have all your pets microchipped. Do that, do that, do that. The evacuation is just a prime opportunity for animals to get loose. You really want to know if your pet gets loose that they’re microchipped. Keep a collar on them. I think it’s also really helpful in your neighborhood to exchange house keys with trusted neighbors or friends. Because you may be at work when a disaster hits. We see that a lot with wildfires. 

MD [14:19] Wildfires, yeah. I’m in Northern California. 

BG [14:22] Right! Sometimes people get kind of judgemental about people that have evacuated without their pets, but a lot of times, they are away from home when that happens. So you want someone to have the ability to get into your house and get your animals. The other thing is make sure you have a vehicle big enough to get everyone out in cages. If you don’t, then make a plan for who is going to be your evacuation buddy that can take some. I know there’s a lot of multiple dog owners out there, and those cages get big. You can also, of course, take the crates apart and have your dogs loose in the car and have your crates ready to be put together. The last thing I’d say that’s really helpful is to have your vaccinations up to date, but have them kept on your phone and on the cloud. It’s really helpful when getting into a hotel that may not accept pets. If you’re able to say, “I’ve got my vaccination records right here on my phone. You can see them.” What that really tells them is you’re a responsible pet owner.

MD [15:25] These are great. I think everyone’s heard about the grab-and-go bag and the lists of supplies, but when it comes down to it, you may not have time to grab the bag, but you probably have your phone, so these are really good practical suggestions. We know that people often need help outside of natural disasters: help caring for or keeping their pets. Sometimes there are medical emergencies. I thought it would be great if you could just briefly tell us about the Red Rover Relief Urgent Care Grant Program and how that works.

BG [15:55] Sure! Our Urgent Care Program is really great. This is so sincere, I feel like I’m doing a commercial, but really it’s just knowing what urgent care offers and that staff will do such a great job. We provide financial assistance in the form of grants, usually about $250-$350. It’s for life-threatening situations. They’re considered gap grants, because you can't even walk by a vet’s office without it costing that much.

MD [16:29] The money flies away!

BG [16:31] Right. But it’s for pet owners (and good samaritans) who are helping an animal. You can go to redrover.org/relief to see the criteria. But basically it’s not just for routine care. It’s not for diagnostics, but we work directly with the veterinary clinic. A lot of times, once they hear that someone is involved to fund part of the care, and that we’re working with the pet owner to find other funding—a lot of times, they’re really touched by that and sometimes they say, “We can do this surgery for a little bit less.” We really work on helping that animal get in the door at the vet clinic and get the care that they need. Last year, we gave out about 4,500 grants all over the country. It was about $134,000 in grants. It really helped pets get the treatment that they needed. 

MD [17:30] That’s fantastic. This is one thing that I really love about Red Rover: your program to help victims of domestic violence. We know that statistics suggest 25% of domestic violence survivors return to their abusers because they had to leave a pet behind, which is devastating. Can you talk about how you’re addressing this problem to help both victims of domestic abuse but also the programs that offer human shelter to victims of domestic abuse?

BG [18:27] It really is a huge issue. Domestic violence perpetrators are just really master manipulators. They will go after anything that their victim cherishes. For so many people in that situation, it is their pets. They really know how to turn the screws down and threaten or do harm. 

MD [18:53] It’s emotional abuse, too, right? It’s physical, but it can also be emotional.

BG [18:56] Just an aside: as an attorney, I worked with domestic violence victims and honestly have yet to talk with a single one who had a pet that wasn’t harmed or threatened harm. So it’s real. The people in those situations know that. That’s why about half of them delay leaving. A quarter of them return, because they’re so worried about their pets. We’re tackling that in a couple of ways. One is that we have safe escape grants that will cover boarding of animals while a survivor is in a domestic violence shelter, which is huge, because that lets the person get the services and escape and also bring their pet with them. But it’s a band-aid. Band-aids are really important, but we’re looking longer term, and we are looking to help increase the amount of on-site housing at domestic violence shelters and also at animal shelters that work with domestic violence shelters to provide housing for domestic violence pets. So we have safe housing grants, up to $60,000 to domestic violence and animal welfare organizations to increase the housing for those animals. That money can be used to renovate spaces dedicated to housing survivors’ pets. They’re really cool. They’re just really well done. They’re just really amazing. The money could also be used to begin a foster program to care for these pets. A combination of services. Because each community and situation is a little different. In a rural setting, it’s a little bit different than in a city. The shelter will know what will work best, and so we help them. We’re just really interested in providing the capacity. Right now, only about 15% of domestic violence shelters allow for on-site pet housing.

MD [21:00] Wow, that’s not a lot.

BG [21:01] It’s not a lot! We’ve awarded safe housing grants to shelters in 46 states, over $2 million dollars. There are 10 states that got their first pet-friendly shelter due to our safe housing grants. 

MD [21:19] That’s amazing.

BG [21:20] We work a lot with GreaterGood charities.

MD [21:23] I saw that. They’re great. 

BG [21:25] They are just great. In 2019, we started a Don’t Forget the Pets program with Rescue Rebuild. Rescue Rebuild is a program of GreaterGood. There’s a website that folks should check out (dontforgetthepets.org) that has a lot of resources to help human welfare organizations like domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters create capacity to take care of the pets of these people. We have a training handbook for organizations thinking of doing this. When you think about it, the human welfare organizations—they have their hands full. While there’s always animal lovers on staff, that’s not necessarily what their expertise is. Sometimes they don’t even take this on because they’re feeling overwhelmed, and they’re like, “Oh my god. How are we going to do this?” Don’t Forget the Pets is all about providing the training and the resources and support for those organizations to have on-site pet housing. So there’s a training handbook, a community forum, workshops, and a coaching program.

MD [22:40] Very cool. Now you’ve described so many amazing things that Red Rover is doing, so I’m hoping that our listeners are itching to get involved. Can you tell us a little bit about volunteer opportunities? How can people find out about how they can help or how they can do things locally or remote? How do people get involved?

BG [23:00] The two programs at Red Rover where we very much need volunteers are the Responders Program and the Readers Program, which is (as I mentioned) our humane education program. You can go to redrover.org/workshops to look at the training programs for those. For the Readers Program, we’re looking for teachers and volunteers in the school. You can check out the training program there. For the Responders Program, we’re looking for volunteers to deploy with us, to go on-site during a natural disaster or when there’s been a large amount of animals rescued from a cruelty or neglect situation. Our training is completely online. It’s free. It’s really a fantastic way to learn—it’s a little bit of an orientation to what it’s like to deploy. Then you just become an active volunteer with us. When there is a disaster or a cruelty response in your area, you get an email inviting you or inquiring if you’re interested in deploying. 

MD [24:17] Cool, very cool. I hope some people are inspired to check it out. Obviously your work encompasses many aspects of humans’ relationships with their pets. I guess my next question is, from your work experience, what would you say about the importance of the bond between humans and their pets? 

BG [24:33] It’s almost hard to put into words. It’s huge. I just think—pure and simple—it’s really about love. It’s an unconditional love that sustains us. It’s powerful. It’s really beautiful, and that’s why we focus on it at Red Rover. When there is a crisis, we want people to be able to protect the animals that they love. We just want to honor that bond. That’s why we’re committed to natural disaster sheltering—so that people don’t have to leave their loved one behind and think about pulling a pile of dog food because there is nowhere for them to go with their dogs. It’s a choice that no one should have to make. The human/animal bond inspires us to be better people. You think about the bumper sticker: “Help me become the person my dog thinks I am.” Animals just show that unconditional love, and it touches us deep inside. It can bring tears to my eyes. I volunteered with another animal organization—the International Fund for Animal Welfare—and I just got back from Poland. We were in a refugee area, right at the Ukraine border. It was mainly women and children coming through. They had everything they owned in a suitcase or box they were carrying. They brought their pets. There were kittens tucked into jackets. In laundry baskets with cardboard over the top, there were dogs. In a war—with their lives at stake—people bring their pets. That’s a powerful bond. 

MD [26:27] For me, I was already working at an animal shelter at the time, but when Hurricane Katrina happened, I think that was the turning point in the United States, where we recognized we can’t ignore this relationship anymore. So, yeah, I think everything Red Rover is doing obviously ties into that importance of the bond when there’s an emergency, when there’s a disaster, when people need help. Thank you for everything you’re doing. I like to end on a fun question: if you could be any breed of dog, which one would you choose and why?

BG [26:58] I think I would be an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix.

MD [27:04] Nice. Very high energy.

BG [27:07] In honor of my dog, Wallace, who has since passed away, but I just so, so loved him and admired him. I would want to be that mix because he was smart as a whip. Athletic and active. Loved to be outdoors. He needed to make a difference. He needed a job.

MD [27:30] I see a lot of parallels!

BG [27:32] He was sensitive and just a great companion. I always used to say I would love to be like him. I used to also say that I would like to come back as one of my dogs. They have a pretty great life. 

MD [27:49] That doesn’t surprise me. I think you’ve embodied a lot of his positive traits that you’ve just described. So thank you so much for speaking with me today. I’m just so blown away by what Red Rover is doing. Just as a last reminder: where can people learn more? I assume you take donations, so people should feel free to send you some money or, like you said, become volunteers. Can you give us that website one more time?

BG [28:15] That’s super kind: redrover.org. That’s where you’ll find information on all the things that we’ve talked about. A huge thanks to you for the opportunity to talk and for what you do in your podcast. It’s a huge service.

MD [28:28] I’m super happy to share about your organization. I’m really just so impressed. So thank you so much! Thanks everybody for listening! And we’ll see you next week.