Payne County Animal Response Team (PCART) - Oklahoma

welcome to payne cart

Current and potential volunteers: Please complete our 2023 Volunteer Profile to help us determine our response capacity and training needs this spring.

PCART is working to rebuild our team since we lost so many members during the pandemic years. If you are interested in joining our team please contact us at [email protected]. Note that there will be a disaster emergency sheltering exercise in Stillwater on Saturday Oct 19. Please email for more information.

For more information and to RSVP go to our Events page!

Thank you to our 2018, 2019 & 2020 sponsors who awarded us grants for training and equipment!

Payne CART Mission Statement

The mission of the Payne County Animal Response Team is to engage animal health care professionals and other interested parties in helping the community prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from, emergencies, disasters, and subsequent animal health issues, by having a group of properly credentialed and trained volunteers available.

Payne County Animal Response Team (PCART) is a non-profit [501(c)(3)] organization staffed by an all volunteer specialized team of animal professionals and Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corp credentialed volunteers. The team responds to animal disasters and emergencies in Payne and surrounding counties in Oklahoma. Please explore our website to learn more about what we do, and like our Facebook page to receive updates on our activities and those of other teams across the country!

payne county, Oklahoma residents have lots of pets and livestock too!

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 56 % of US households have at least one pet. 

In Payne County we have over 35,000 households!
That means that about 20,000 of housholds have at least one pet.
The AVMA reported in 2011 that over 60% of pet owners consider their animals to be part of the family.

Of these 20,000 households, AVMA estimates that:

37% have dogs (1.6 dogs per dog owning household)
30% have cats (2.1 cats per cat owning household)
31% have birds (2.3 birds per bird owning household)
15% have horses (2.7 horses per horse owning household)

Many also have rabbits, guinea pigs, exotics, and other animals!

And in 2011, the AVMA reported that 63.2%
of pet owners considered their pets to be
family members!

In 2012 there were 1466 farms in Payne County, with:

40,205 cattle and calves
3,120 egg layers
2,786 horses and ponies
1,992 goats and alpacas
1,820 sheep and lambs

The bottom line?
Payne County residents have lots of animals to keep track of and be reunited with if we have a major event!

what else does payne county have?

Wildfires. Tornadoes. Floods. Earthquakes.
Potential accidents with livestock and horse trailers.

Remember our May 2019 Floods?

The OKMRC activated small and large animal teams during the flooding across Oklahoma. Several PCART members worked at shelters in Tulsa while others provided crates to the Stillwater Fire Department and delivered dog food to displaced local families. The Oklahoma Large Animal First Responders worked with American Humane and Code 3 Associates with rescue efforts in eastern Oklahoma. And guess what? Code 3 Associates is coming to train qualified volunteers in Flood and Slackwater Animal Rescue in June thanks to a grant from The Kirkpatrick Foundation!

At Turning Point Ranch Therapeutic Riding Center near Country Club and 6th in Stillwater, Payne County, OK the horses tried to take shelter but the water kept rising. Thanks to the quick action of TPR staff who managed to open the gates and convince the horses to swim out on their own, they are all safe and ready for students to return in September. See the ranch website (https://turningpointriding.org/ ) and Facebook page for more updates, and come to our Sept 9 PCART meeting to learn about the new training partnership between Turning Point and PCART to take place at the ranch in April!

Yes those are horses in the shelter. They were up to their shoulders before Turning Point staff was able to open the gates and let them swim to safety.

A little humor from the Turning Point staff during cleanup despite the amount of work in front of them!

Don't forget what else happens in Payne County that affects our animals and consider volunteering, donating or providing other resources!!

We need volunteers to help us educate the public, train for emergency responses, write training and equipment grants, manage our volunteers, and, when the worst happens, help us to keep the animals, animal owners, and first responders of Payne County and other areas in Oklahoma safe!

WILDFIRES

HORSE AND LIVESTOCK TRAILER MISHAPS

TORNADOES

FLOODS

HORSE AND LIVESTOCK TRAILER MISHAPS

Ask any first responder who has dealt with animal owners in a disaster. People do NOT want to leave their animals behind! But when pet and livestock owners attempt to rescue animals on their own it puts their lives, and those of the responders who must then rescue them, at risk!

The relatively new field of animal and veterinary disaster response and technical rescue emerged from incidents like Hurricanes Andrew, Sandy, and Katrina, tornadoes, and floods where people would not leave their animals!

And Payne County and other regions of Oklahoma are rapidly training and equipping Animal Response Teams and Animal Technical Rescue Teams.

Payne County's Emergency Operations Plan provides for an animal response team (PCART) that is here to help you care for your animals during the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters and other emergencies and accidents!

We hope that every family has an emergency plan in place, but does your plan also include the animals under your care? View this PSA for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ZjPBsPpdE&feature=youtu.be

Imagine the pets that depend on you, or the livestock your family depends on, wandering alone, injured, and terrified. All it may take is a damaged fence.

Your resources are already stretched to the limit - you have your family and belongings to secure and can't spend hours looking for the animals. You may not have a place to keep them safe even if you do find them. How will you get them the medical care they need in the midst of the chaos, and if our first responders rescue them, how will your animals find their way to you?

When our dedicated professional emergency responders pull animals from a burning house, or a home or barn that is damaged or destroyed, they don't have the expertise to treat their injuries. They don't have the time, manpower or equipment to keep the animals from running off, or the resources to make sure they are reunited with you, their owners. Although some are trained in animal rescue, their priority must be the people.

Now picture having a central location, staffed by trained veterinary and animal response personnel, volunteering to care for your animals until you can be reunited.

When you and your horse get in trouble, first responders may have the equipment they need but may not be familiar with how to use it to rescue large animals without injuring the animals or themselves.

Check out video of a rescue by the Washington State Animal Response Team (WASART) in June 2017!

https://www.facebook.com/WASART/videos/10154634093621629/

http://komonews.com/news/local/firefighters-working-to-rescue-woman-and-horse-after-20-foot-fall-into-ravine

Payne County Animal Response Team, or Payne CART, is a non-profit, specialized team of animal professionals and Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corp credentialed volunteers that respond to animal disasters and emergencies in Payne and surrounding counties in Oklahoma.

PCART currently has team members who are trained to help in responding to disasters, but we are also in desperate need of materials, equipment, additional volunteers, and new training opportunities to help us provide this assistance as effectively and efficiently as possible.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO BECOME A VOLUNTEER OR A RESOURCE FOR PCART

Donate to PCART

Please explore the pages of our website to learn more about what Payne CART can do for you and your animals, what we will be able to do once we have more materials, equipment, and volunteers, and what YOU can do to help us protect the animals of Payne and surrounding counties.

And please make sure you are prepared for the storm season and potential wildfires! You will find resources on our page to help you learn how to be ready.

The drop-down menu at the top of each page should help you to find the information you need.

Thank you for your interest in the animals of Payne County, Oklahoma!

Dr. Daniel J. Burba, DVM
President, PCART

Stacy Mason, PCART Co-Director

And other members of the PCART team

P.S. Keeping pets & people together is our goal! A disaster often rips everything away from a family. Please help make sure the loss of their animal companions or their livelihood is not another burden they must bear.

Resources for statistics:

Photo credits:

Photos of emergency responders and animals were provided by Oklahoma State University's Fire Protection Publications Library.
Photos from the AKC.org website were used with permission.
Some photos were borrowed from websites of organizations that we collaborate with.
Technical rescue photos are from websites for social media pages of organizations fully trained in technical animal rescue/response.
Other photos downloaded from the web were listed as "Free to modify, share, and use" or a link to the news organization that posted them is included.
If in any case an image was used inappropriately, please contact us and the image will be removed.