Mouth-to-Muzzle Most Pet Owners are Willing
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Should You Have Pet safety and CPR Training
If you’re concerned about your pet, you should never feel embarrassed about calling a veterinarian.
Veterinarians are used to emergencies and they prepare for them. Most veterinary hospitals have doctors on-call or provide referrals to emergency pet hospitals, so don’t worry about waking your veterinarian out of a sound sleep.
Emergencies happen every day. Being prepared can greatly increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.
As reported on MSNBC, most pet owners would leap into action for an injured pet, even if it meant risking dog breath by going mouth-to-snout.In fact a new poll says women are more likely to give pets CPR than men
Fifty-eight percent of pet owners — 63 percent of dog owners and 53 percent of cat owners — would be at least somewhat likely to perform CPR on their pet in the event of a medical emergency, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll.
Tammy Parks, 52, of Amherst, Massachusetts, has taken a pet first-aid class and wouldn’t hesitate to help her 15-year-old mixed breed terriers, Lucy and Julia, or her white fronted Amazon parrot Koko.
“It’s not rocket science. The mechanics are the same as humans,” said Parks, who was an American Red Cross first-aid trainer. “Size is the biggest difference.”
In general, though, the poll found few pet owners are prepared to handle pet emergencies. Just 20 percent of pet owners have a pet first-aid kit in their home, and 54 percent do not have a fire evacuation plan for their pets.
Still, most pet owners said they would go the extra mile to rescue their pets. Women were more likely to say they would perform CPR on their pets than men, 65 percent to 50 percent, the poll showed.
Nearly every decision made at the Parks house is made with the safety of the animals in mind.
“We don’t use pesticide on the lawn. We don’t buy food with pesticide on it. No sugar, no salt, just natural nuts and fruits. No Teflon in the house, no smoking, no air fresheners, no aerosol products,” she said, explaining that any one of those things could kill their 7-year-old bird.
Barbara Klingman of Houma, Louisiana, said she changed things after her Chihuahua, Honeychild, ate something that forced an emergency trip to the vet.
“I make sure she doesn’t have anything she shouldn’t have,” Klingman said of the 7-pound, 4-year-old dog.
Pet safety and CPR training is offered by the American Red Cross and many private companies. “Vets are the experts but they are rarely on scene when something happens to our pets,” said Denise Fleck, who runs
Sunny-Dog Ink in Burbank and has written pet safety textbooks, appeared on a number of TV shows and taught classes throughout Southern California.
Disaster plans are important, too, especially in areas like Southern California that are at the mercy of earthquakes and fires.
“If people value their pets like a family member, they should know how to do CPR, just like they would for their kids. In disasters, pets get hurt and run into debris and all kinds of things,” said Mark Solnick, director of emergency preparedness and response for the Red Cross Santa Monica.
The AP-Petside.com poll was conducted Oct. 1 to 5, 2009, by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. It involved telephone interviews on landline and cell phones with 1,166 pet owners nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for all pet owners.
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