About VASART

In today’s world, we all worry about the threat of a natural or man-made disaster. Animals are especially vulnerable when a disaster strikes because they must rely on us for help.

In 1998, Hurricane Floyd claimed the lives of millions of animals in North Carolina, and thousands more were separated from their owners. Many of these animals could have been saved by a coordinated response plan. From this tragedy, the State Animal Response Team (SART) concept was born.

In 2006, Virginia adopted this concept to address its animal-related disaster response needs.

About CARTs

A CART is a Community Animal Response Team. CARTs are the grassroots level responders in an emergency in which an organized response to meet the needs of animals is required and are components of a State Animal Response Team (SART). If activated on either the local or state level, CARTs respond under the auspices of emergency management.

CART members can include animal control officers, cooperative extension agents, sheriff’s personnel, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal industry personnel and concerned citizens. All CARTs have a team leader who coordinates planning and response efforts with the local emergency management office and the Office of the State Veterinarian. Each CART member must meet certain criteria and present documentation, licenses and/or certificates, where appropriate, related to the role or present evidence of knowledge/skills germane to the desired role for review by the team leadership.