UAN 2008 Press Release

EARS Volunteers Continue Deploying to Help Victims of Iowa Flooding

Financial Assistance for Flood Victims Also Available

SACRAMENTO, CA (July 7, 2008) – As of today, California-based United Animal Nations (UAN) has deployed 90 volunteers trained in emergency sheltering to Cedar Rapids to help care for animals displaced by the catastrophic flooding last month.

Volunteers with UAN’s Emergency Animal Rescue Service  (EARS) have come from as far as Rhode Island, Virginia and British Columbia to care for hundreds of animals at a temporary emergency shelter on the Kirkwood Community College campus.

Many animals, like Sly, have been reunited with their families in Cedar Rapids, but hundreds more remain at the temporary shelter where EARS volunteers continue to care for them.

Distinguished by their red t-shirts, UAN’s EARS volunteers are providing shelter management, management of local volunteers, routine animal care, dog walking, pet reunification, and general upkeep and cleaning at the temporary shelter. Many of the EARS volunteers have significant experience operating emergency shelters and caring for animals during natural disasters.

With more than 4,000 trained volunteers, UAN can deploy its Emergency Animal Rescue Service when communities become overburdened by a crisis involving large numbers of animals. In its 21-year history, UAN has responded to more than 80 natural disasters and other crises, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005; the Greensburg, Kansas tornado in 2007; and the major Midwest flooding in 1993.

UAN is also offering LifeLine Crisis Relief Grants  to help victims of the flooding with expenses for the following:

• Veterinary care to treat injury or illness caused by flooding
• Temporary boarding for those whose homes are damaged or destroyed
• Transporting pets to a temporary living situation for those whose homes are damaged or destroyed

To apply for a grant or make a donation to support UAN’s disaster response efforts, visit www.uan.org .

UAN is deploying EARS volunteers to Cedar Rapids at the request of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Services to assist Cedar Rapids Animal Control. EARS volunteers are working with local volunteers and representatives from Kirkwood Community College and The Humane Society of the United States -- one of UAN's partners in the National Animal Rescue and Sheltering Coalition -- to operate the shelter.

Founded in 1987, United Animal Nations (UAN) is the nation’s leading provider of emergency animal sheltering and disaster relief services and a key advocate for the critical needs of animals.

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