News of Scottish Large Animal Rescue Initiative

Indeed, a high percentage of call outs for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service result in interaction with an animal. From busy major roads, to remote shorelines, our vets and emergency first responders turn out day and night to keep people and animals safe.

In contrast to the rest of the UK and other parts of the world, all students graduating from a Scottish Veterinary School receive basic training in this important subject. Recently, this work was expanded to include training for vets and ground staff at Scotland's major equestrian events and for other first responders such Police Scotland, paramedics and the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service and the Coastguard.

Scottish firemen practicing a large animal rescue with 'Hector', the equine manikin

Also, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and the School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow, in collaboration with the British Horse Society (Scotland) and Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, have established a formal partnership to provide a Scotland wide approach to incidents involving horses and other large animals including wildlife.

This unique venture will aim to provide a trained and equipped fire and rescue crew and a trained and equipped veterinary surgeon to every incident in this country. Using the Scottish Government's community asset register, our emergency services will have access to trained vets using protocols designed to maximise human safety and animal welfare.

Despite the challenging geography here in Scotland, no other country in the world has established such a comprehensive approach.

In order to deliver this exciting initiative, we have worked closely with the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Association (BARTA), which accredits training for first responders and vets and established a training centre Glasgow Vet School.

The University of Glasgow, in collaboration with the Dick Vet and recently the new vet school at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), have invested in this initiative with the purchase of rescue equipment and horse, cow and dog manikins.

Firefighters and rescue service in the retrieval of a cow from a hillside

These life-size manikins are used in immersive simulation exercises to safely train our vets and first responders how to successfully handle these high stakes environments. In addition, we have introduced training in incident management, performance under pressure and resilience for our vets and vet students.

The final part of the jigsaw is the need to equip the Scottish Fire and Rescue service and other first responders with a full range of rescue equipment. With generous donations from the British Horse Society (Scotland) and the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, we are close to equipping the six Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's heavy rescue units with the equipment they need – however, more funding is required.

To that end, we are appealing to horse owners, farmers, trainers, riding clubs and all equine and large animal stakeholders here in Scotland to help with this important initiative.

Whether you would like training, a demonstration or would like to get involved in helping us to fundraise for the Scottish Large Animal Rescue Initiative, or would like more information, we would be delighted to visit your establishment, with a team from the SFRS and the vet school in Glasgow, to provide a talk on the initiative, including a practical session on large animal rescue and trailer safety.

If you would like to book a presentation, require more information or wish to donate to this cause, please contact the Glasgow Equine Hospital and Practice on 0141 330 5999 or e mail vet-equine@glasgow.ac.uk