Career: County Animal Response Team Coordinator
Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management
Hay everyone!
The fall weather is just around the corner, and I could not be more excited! The leaves will be changing soon and Cook campus is going to look prettier than it already is. We can chat about the weather later though. We’ve got a career to learn about!
This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with one of our friends over at the county offices: Eric Martin. He is a member of the Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management and Preparedness, and part of his job is to help keep animals safe during disasters. Even though his background involves a lot of human search and rescue training, he is incredibly dedicated to his current work involving animal rescue. As you will certainly see, he has quite the passion for raising awareness!
Before we get started, here’s some acronyms and terms that were used during the interview:
CART: County Animal Response Team
CERT: County Emergency Response Team
AEWG: Animal Emergency Working Group (managed by the NJ state veterinarian, Dr. Sandra Strilec)
PFD: Personal Flotation Device (lifejacket)
OEM: Office of Emergency Management
FEMA Resource Typing (“508”): Document released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that includes descriptions of resources and trainings required for different levels of emergency-preparedness, specifically for teams focused on animal rescue.
USAR: Urban Search and Rescue – FEMA Collapsed Structure Response Task Force
Lord Nelson (LN): How did you get started in a career involving animal rescue?
Eric Martin (EM): I was teaching a class in upstate New York, Orange County, New York. And the truck for Animal Planet Rescue was coming down 87 as I was going up. And of course, it said rescue, so anytime a rescuer sees the word rescue, it gets the attention. Here’s where you know I was meant to be there: they were actually going to my town. They were doing a demonstration because they were doing a training nearby. So, when I was coming back from the teaching from Orange County that day, we cut through the parking lot and lo and behold, the truck was there, but not just the truck, but they had all the technical rescue equipment.
So now, as a rescuer, you’ve got all this technical rescue equipment in my backyard, I’m going to pull over, and that’s exactly what happened. We started having a conversation, and it really took off from there.
Their background with technical rescue was not as strong as my background. While I was inquiring like a little child who wanted to know what he was doing, he was terrified that I was going to start criticizing the couple of rigs and rigging systems he did that were incorrect. Instead, I just wanted to get involved and we ended up establishing a relationship. They thought that I was pretty good at my knowledge base because I fooled him pretty well, and they started to bring me out to everything from floods to tornadoes, hurricanes, and any type of natural or man-made disaster. I ended up becoming the technical rescue advisor, doing all their search and rescue training and overseeing. I met Dr. Rebecca (Gimenez) Husted and Dr. Tomas Gimenez because they were doing a large animal rescue class and Animal Planet Rescue was looking at adopting their materials. I was sent out to South Carolina to evaluate their training, which led me to getting into the large animal rescue side of things and beginning to train with them.
LN: It sounds like you stumbled upon this field, that you already had some background in, and ended up sticking with it.
EM: One hundred percent. We had never really focused specifically on the animal side. As a matter of fact, one of the first responses that we went to was a tornado, and it was a new experience because we had to deal with feral cats and large livestock. We had a couple of steers that were loose, but we still applied the incident management system. We still applied land search techniques. The experience was the best ever. It was a really phenomenal opportunity to merge human rescue and animal rescue, because that was the first time that we were in a situation where we couldn’t ask the person to come to us, and if anything, they’re probably going in the opposite direction.
It really changed a lot of my perspective, especially with the horse side of things since I had to have a whole different approach. As you know, they’re a prey species and it’s a different type of connection. And we also use horses in search and rescue. We have mounted search and rescue groups and they’re sometimes better than actual “Human Remains Detection” dogs.
LN: Regarding your current job with the county, what does your day-to-day work look like?
EM: My role in the county office is operations and training. I’m the training officer. I have a lot of involvement in most of the training that takes place for the county. In terms of operations, my responsibility is CART.
We also have the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT. I oversee and guide the municipalities that have a CERT team. And this month we’ll be starting a county CERT team, so I’ll be adding more to my plate. As the search and rescue coordinator, I’m responsible for working with state and local search and rescue coordinators for any missing person in Middlesex County.
Another one is active school threat. I’m responsible for active shooter incident management, so if you have a threat come into a school, how do we mange resources going in to reduce potential “friendly fire” because police are going in every different doorway, and we absolutely want to keep everyone safe and provide treatment to those injured.
LN: How did you end up in that more administrative role than on the ground doing rescue? How did you transition between those two?
EM: The more knowledge you get, the more proficient you become, the more respect you gain. I really feel that the more experience you get, at some point in time, the football player becomes the coach. As I get older, I’m not doing some of the things that I was a little bit more prone to doing when I was in my 20s. But on the other hand, I didn’t have the knowledge base that I have now. So that transition is a natural shift. If you’re doing your job well, you tend to increase your rank or office as you evolve. Any industry, if you’re doing it long enough and well enough, you become a leader.
It was a little bit harder for me to digest. I would say this time, maybe about, seven years ago, ten years ago, I was really having feelings like, ‘I hate being the desk jockey.’ But now, I’m not a desk jockey all the time because you’ll see me at more events out and about.
I believe in creating a circle of safety for all my team members so they know I’ve got their back no matter what, and I’m doing the work to keep them safe before they even get to deployment. That’s a key part of my responsibility as a program manager or coordinator for any of the projects I have.
LN: Who else is on the team with you?
EM: Right now, the CART team is a total volunteer organization. I’m the only full-time person. Here’s a prime example: in a couple of weeks, I’ll be trying to get Union County Office of Emergency Management a CART team started.
I’ve gone to AEWG and given presentations there; I’ve gone and given presentations on animal rescue with Dr. Strilec at our NJ State Emergency Preparedness conferences. I like being out in the field and trying to plant the seed with the hope that when I do retire, someone else is carrying the torch. That’s important to me. I don’t think there’s enough mentor-mentor relationships, in rescue especially or emergency preparedness. Not mentor-mentee, I’m not a big believer in that. I believe in the idea that the person I’m working with is a mentor and I’m a mentor. We’re sharing information and learning from each other, and hopefully it’s enough for them to be able to carry on what I’m doing. I don’t want my dash in between my birth date and end date to be forgotten. My goal is to make sure that somebody is taking it to the next level after I’m done.
LN: Was CART already established in Middlesex County before you got here?
EM: Yes, but not even close to what we have now. The job of CART was basically, there’s an apartment fire, bring Fluffy out. It was actually a very difficult process to further develop it, and it took years to get the mindset for large animal rescue. It took years to get the mindset of, I’m taking the CART member and I’m putting a PFD and dry suit on the person and putting them in the vessel with a technical rescuer.
Helmetta, NJ was the first time that we actually did that for hurricane remnants of Henri. And I’d love to show you pictures of that if you ever want to see it, but that was the first time that we could actually send people out because there were so many post-Covid pets. Here’s the problem: if they were told by the fire department that they couldn’t bring the pet, the pet is left at home. That’s against the humane law, that’s abandonment. They were then taken to our congregate shelter, but they wouldn’t leave the shelter because they’re not leaving Fluffy behind.
The reason why we were able to shut down the congregate municipal shelter was because we got all the animals to the owners and they said, okay, now we’ll go to family and friends. They weren’t going to leave otherwise. If the CART team didn’t go out with the technical rescuers and bring those pets back, that wouldn’t have happened. That was the first time that we proved to our director that what we had was essential and beneficial for the long term because it’s a big financial cost to run a congregate shelter to feed and house people. So that saved the municipality and even the county a considerable amount of money.
If Henri didn’t happen, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now talking to you guys. Because they were always saying that it’ll never happen. Just like with the incident with the overturned horse trailer. If they said it once, it’ll never happen. They said it a thousand times. And when it did happen, I just walked in. Because they were the ones calling me at 12 o’clock in the morning and asking me what they should do. But even then, they were so hesitant that they didn’t even activate the CART team. And that showed me that you still haven’t bought into it, which came up later. Why didn’t you have us there instead of on the phone? No matter what, talking over the phone is not going to give you the same confidence as me standing next to you and saying, do this or do that.
I’m happy with where we’re going. The relationship I have with you guys, the ESC, is my benchmark. It was very discouraging being the only person saying, you’re not stupid, you’re not crazy for really wanting to take this further.
I’ve been in the industry now for 43 years doing this stuff, and you guys are the only ones that really validated this aspect. I can validate almost every aspect. I’m very good at my trade when it comes down to rope rescue or compliance-based rescue or so forth. But when it comes down to the animal component, it’s like the CART team finally has a place. My director has finally bought into the program by getting us the horse ambulance trailers.
My tail’s wagging, you guys got whatever we have, period. That’s how much clout you guys have with me. Because you’re validating, number one, and number two, you’re the voice. Nobody listens to us. We’re firefighters. We’re nobody. And, unless you have a place that buys into it, nobody’s going to go out and make an investment in buying all kinds of necessary equipment. It’s finally rewarding just to be able to have a conversation, even if it goes no further than just conversation, that in itself is nice. The fact that we’re able to sit across the table and say, let’s talk about horses and not feel like I’m intimidating you by challenging. And you certainly are not intimidating, you’re challenging me because you’re making me better. No matter what, our experience is always going to be better. Getting the CART team together so you guys can just talk about how you walk around a horse. It’s still going to make them better. Just having the conversation always improves the knowledge base. And improving the knowledge base improves performance. That’s what I’m about.
LN: What kind of training do the CART volunteers come from? Are they already established in search and rescue? Or is it just someone coming up to you guys and going, I want to help?
EM: They’re an eclectic group. I have one person on the team who is a ferret expert. That’s the love of her life. She’s a vet tech. As a matter of fact, when you look at our patch, there’s a ferret on our patch just because we want to acknowledge her.
So, we have the volunteer who just wants to help out with animals and has no formal experience. We get animal control officers; we have vet techs. As a matter of fact, my biggest problem right now is getting veterinarians that are willing to do large animal work. I’m okay with small animals. I have no problem with that. But when it comes down to the large animals, that’s where we can have issues. Like the horse trailer incident I mentioned before, this is why we had to wait two hours. They had to give the vet a police escort because it would have been sunlight by the time she got there if she drove herself. And now you’re getting into the difficult questions, and I felt terrible for her because now you’re getting into all the implications of possibly euthanizing an animal and she has to make a judgement call. That’s a controlled, dangerous substance. You’re talking about financial reimbursement. You’re talking about having to get in touch with the owner because the owner isn’t there. This is a Thoroughbred. This is a serious monetary investment.
Our main criteria for anyone who’s going to come on is that they can benefit the team. When I interview them, we have a panel with myself and two members of the team, and I sit there just as a representative from the county and a moderator. But I tell them, you don’t have to put 100% of the time in, but when you are here, you have to be 100%. If you’re going to be here for an hour, I expect you to have a positive mental attitude and be willing to learn and get involved. Come in and be a team member. If I see you hiding in the background for all the activities, or when it’s something to be done you always look at the other way, you’re not going to be on a team for long. If you want to be a volunteer, and you want to make the team better, then you’ll be on the team.
We want you to bring something to the team, but it doesn’t have to be formal training. We don’t have a problem training you while you’re on the team and you’re going through your probationary period. Part of that is taking a bunch of different classes. And if you don’t meet expectations at the end of that period, maybe it’s because of extenuating circumstances like work or family issues, we will work with that person with no problem at all. But if you’re sitting up here and having a great day eating bonbons and you’re not meeting deadlines in your training, you’re telling me that you don’t want to be on a team. You just want the shirts, or you want to be able to say you’re on a team. We do remove people from the team. I don’t like doing that in any way, shape or form, but I have done that.
One county, for example, they have one massive week-long training and then they say, go out and if we ever need you, we’ll call you. They don’t talk to their members at all. You have to meet monthly with our team. Now when I say that, if something comes up, no problem. But we can’t let it become a habit, because how can you maintain proficiency if we never see you and you’re not at any of the trainings? And everybody, so far, has had no problem with that. As a matter of fact, they’ve even been happier because we’re using them. They’ve never been used as often as they’re being used now. The State Police Hazardous Material Unit, which is based out of our department at the academy, is actually doing the hazardous material training for the CART team for animal decontamination. They can even monitor whether or not a horse is radiologically contaminated. We’re looking at getting them to the point where the CART team is actually doing the decontamination protocols for any animals, not just domestic. It would be any of the agricultural animals too.
LM: From what you’ve seen in the training in Middlesex County, how does Middlesex County’s CART team compare to other counties? You mentioned every county in Jersey is mandated to have one, are there rules about how they have to be set up? Is it just that it has to exist?
EM: Right now, there’s not a state mandate for minimum training standards, the team just has to exist in each county. That’s why the 508, and that’s what’s scaring a lot of people. We’re training our CART team to 508 standards, like it or not. I don’t have to train the CART members to be a rope rescuer. What I do is I bring in my USAR element, who have nothing but rope rescue capabilities. We’re doing a swift water class, but it’s made to build awareness because they’ll always be with a swift water technician in the field. You’re not going to be in the water by yourself. You’re going to be with me and I’m your insurance policy. There’s a number of ways that the CART teams can certainly bypass all this intensive training and monetary lift, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
I’m blessed. I got Animal Planet behind me and lots of experience from them. But the other people, they’ve never been exposed to this stuff, and they certainly don’t have expertise like this in their backyard, so I don’t hold it against them. They think they’re doing a great job. And they come to us for opinions, and I like that also, because that tells me that we’re respected amongst the CART community. I’ll help any unit, like I mentioned I’m meeting with a neighboring county soon. We already had a meeting with their coordinator and their deputy, and soon we’ll be meeting with their members. Anybody who wants to get up to our level, we have transparency. Anybody can take whatever they want and use it. If it works, if it doesn’t work, throw it out and my feelings aren’t going to get hurt. It’s working for us right now.
LN: Wow! It sounds like the CART team has really flourished since you’ve been involved. Thank you very much for your time, we always enjoy speaking with you.
EM: My pleasure, Lord Nelson!
The members of Middlesex County CART and CERT are truly some brave and inspiring people. It’s awesome to see how Mr. Martin is working to build up CART and make the voices of animals heard too!
The NJ Department of Agriculture has a lot of resources on how you can prepare for an emergency with your pets: https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/animalemergency/
If you’re curious about CART teams in other NJ counties, you can check out a list of them here: https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/animalemergency/cart/
Until next time.
Your friend,
Lord Nelson