By Dennis Landrey

Whenever a fire breaks out inside one’s home, the human occupants of that home tend to know that they need to get out of the home as quickly as possible. For our pets, this knowledge is not apparent, as in most cases, they will not seek to escape, resulting in approximately 40,000 US pets perishing annually.

Having the ability and resources to treat pets suffering from smoke inhalation has become a very much talked about issue as of late due to the advancement in animal medicine and over the last 6 months, firefighting crews all over the United States have been testing and are now ready to implecate pet treatment techniques that were thought to be unheard of not to long ago.

“Pets need to be better protected from smoke inhalation,” stated Becky Powers, whose organization Best Friends Pet Resort and Salon, recently donated 6 oxygen masks to their local fire department to be used to treat small animals with oxygen after smoke inalation.

Pat Sands Fire LT. says:
“We haven’t had to use them but they’d probably be useful,” he said. “As for how animals behave in fires, we’re not behaviorists for animals. We don’t know.”