Animal recovery and disease control centre (ARK) / Domestic Animal Services.

Winner: Post-disaster Category, Local Government Stream, Safer Communities Awards 2006.

As part of the ACT Community Recovery Plan the safety and welfare of animals is considered to be an integral part of the emergency response and recovery process. The 2003 bushfires in Canberra highlighted the lack of response capability to effectively manage animals in an emergency. During the bushfires there was a high level of confusion with people not knowing what to do with their domestic animals and there was insufficient resourcing and management for the support of the community?s stock and pets. The lack of tracking procedures caused distress to community members as they endeavoured to be reunited with their pets days after the fires. Our communities place a high value on their pets and the reassurance that their pets are safe can provide a level of comfort to members of the community in distressing times. ARK is a trailer based facility to address the appropriate containment of animals in an emergency (fire, flood, exotic disease outbreak etc). Two ARKs are in operation and are situated in the north and south of Canberra to enhance the deployment capability in an operation. They can be towed by a standard 4WD or similar vehicle. The facility is not designed to keep animals long term but rather to provide a mechanism and procedure to streamline the process of re-location of animals into temporary care and then be able to find them to return them to owners. It allows the owners to get their pets out of danger way quickly and efficiently and be confident that they will be well cared for. Standard Operating Procedures have been developed and are freely available to other jurisdictions looking for a cost effective way to deal with animals in emergencies. Domestic Animal Services, ACT Government, believes that the project provides a national best practice model for animal containment, control and management in emergency events.