Rescue Organizations Research Articles

Exploring Factors That Influence Public Engagement of Adoptable Pets on Facebook

Recent statistics suggest that the percentage of animals adopted from shelters or rescue organizations is lower than expected, especially given the number of animals available for adoption. To help increase adoption rates, animal shelters often advertise adoptable animals on webpages and social media. However, little research has examined what information may be more successful in increasing engagement and interest in the animals to ultimately lead to adoption. This exploratory study examined posts of adoptable animals on Facebook pages of 13 different animal shelters in the US to better understand how post content, such as pictures or videos, type/sex of animal, and the environment the animals are depicted in, may influence public engagement. We also sought to examine if there was a difference between posts in 2019 (pre-pandemic) compared to 2020 (pandemic). The findings suggest that posts on social media can successfully promote animals available for adoption, but the type of animal (dog vs. cat) and environment (e.g., home vs. other) can influence the likes and shares of the posts. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift to more online activity may have influenced engagement; posts from Fall 2019 had more likes, while posts in Fall 2020 had more shares. Future research should continue to look for trends in the content of posts, as well as content shared on other social media outlets, to provide further clarification about how these posts influence adoptions.

Managing knowledge and sustainability in resource constrained disaster environments

AbstractOrganizations use both tangible and intangible resources for their existence to achieve sustainable development goals. Organizational knowledge mainly comprises of tacit knowledge held by employees. It becomes more critical when the situations are unpredictable, for example in rescue/disaster projects involving human lives at risk. Tacit knowledge utilization has been understudied particularly in such environments bounded by resource constraint and sustainability issues. This qualitative research attempts to fill this gap by collecting data from the knowledge workers in a large public sector non‐profit rescue organization. The study reveals various individual level, group level, organizational level, community level, and situational level factors, which impact the tacit knowledge utilization of rescue workers to properly execute emergency life threatening rescue operations and sustainability issues.

Tourist crossing: examining the intersection of wildlife tourism attractions & animal welfare in Costa Rica

ABSTRACT Wildlife tourism attractions (WTAs) are key actors in promoting ecotourism and animal welfare. This field note focuses on the Toucan Rescue Ranch (TRR), a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation nonprofit organization based in central Costa Rica, and its efforts to promote animal welfare through education and outreach. TRR's key ecotourism challenges and achievements – particularly around wildlife protections and coalition building are explored. The article concludes with reflections on the future opportunities facing ecotourism regarding animal welfare regionally, as well as the tourism industry more broadly. These findings were gleaned from discussions with TRR staff during a physical visit as well as during Zoom calls in 2023.

Evacuation of Hospitals

Although evacuations of hospitals are considered rare events, they might be more frequent than often thought. Recent research revealed 158 evacuations of hospitals in the USA within 17 years (mean 9.3/year). Leading causes for evacuations might be natural disasters, technical issues or man-made threats like bomb or active shooter events. Evacuations of hospitals are resource-intensive and might be time-critical. Logistical and coordination challenges for efficient deployment of rescue personnel and material must be met. Management of these situations requires efficient leadership and coordination between hospital employees and rescue organizations such as fire departments or emergency medical services. Therefore, a robust concept for evacuation of hospitals is needed. Our publication describes hospital evacuations and appropriate concepts in Germany.

Влияние жизнестойкости на психологическую безопасность пожарных-спасателей

Introduction. The professional activity of a firefighter is inseparable from psychological states associated with risks and challenges. Performing the tasks of extinguishing fires, eliminating emergency situations and man-made disasters, firefighters act in a team. Their hardiness, the ability to use adaptive strategies in difficult situations, the skill of constructive interpersonal interaction depends on their psychological safety. The aim of the study is to examine firefighters' resilience and its contribution to psychological safety. Materials and methods. The following methods were used: The Hardiness Survey (S. Muddy), The Security Questionnaire (Ch. Kong and L. Ahn), The Portrait Values Questionnaire (Sh. Schwartz). The study on the basis of IPSA GPSA of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia involved firefighters studying in the master's programme in the direction of “Fire Safety”. Methods of mathematical data processing (descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation, regression analysis) were implemented in IBM SPSS Statistics 26 package. Results. The mean scores of resilience, personal psychological safety of firefighters were above the normative values. Significant correlations were found between psychological safety and resilience of firefighters, and involvement as a component of resilience is a predictor of psychological safety with the dominance of values of caring for people and nature. Conclusion. Firefighters' willingness to take risks, sense of confidence and control, and engagement enable adaptive, resilient coping mechanisms. Firefighters' higher sense of psychological safety reflects their ability to better cope with stress, make informed decisions, work effectively as a team, and maintain their psychological well-being in high-risk and highresponsibility environments. Job involvement and commitment to the values of the profession enhance their sense of psychological safety in a teamwork environment and confidence in control. It is important for leaders of fire and rescue organisations to understand the psychological benefits based on resilience and firefighters' sense of psychological safety and to employ practices to develop them.

Specific Technologies of Aviation Rescue and Firefighting Operations over the Years

The twentieth century was a period of rapid development in aviation. It was a time of great progress in the construction of aircraft, the development of ground infrastructure and the improvement of qualifications of aviation personnel. Over the years, aviation has gone from cruise flights in simple aircraft to transatlantic flights, complex aircraft with hundreds of passengers on board. Military aviation can operate at speeds exceeding the speed of sound and in all weather conditions. The infrastructure of large airports has reached the size of cities. Over the past century, the development of aviation has been followed by changes in the organization and equipment of rescue and fire-fighting services. The public does not accept the loss of human life or large-scale material damage and environmental damage. In the search for effective extinguishing agents and methods of administering them, people began to look for ways other than field fire services. Specialized firefighting units have appeared at airports, which are designed for specific rescue and firefighting operations on aircraft and infrastructure. For many years, attempts have been made to select special rescue and firefighting technologies capable of improving the effectiveness and safety of operations. Quite quickly, the car was chosen as the means of transport for airport rescue services. But over time, the need was recognized for it to have different characteristics and equipment than a vehicle for village and town safety units. As a result of various experiments, unusual technical solutions designed to solve basic problems specific to airports were developed. Equally interesting was the path to determining the best fire extinguishing agents and their means of administration. From hand-held fire extinguishers to remote-controlled cannons administering thousands of liters or kilograms of extinguishing agents over a long distance. The publication provides information on the history and development of basic firefighting technologies specific to aviation and some pointers to the future.

An Enhanced IDBO-CNN-BiLSTM Model for Sentiment Analysis of Natural Disaster Tweets.

The Internet's development has prompted social media to become an essential channel for disseminating disaster-related information. Increasing the accuracy of emotional polarity recognition in tweets is conducive to the government or rescue organizations understanding the public's demands and responding appropriately. Existing sentiment analysis models have some limitations of applicability. Therefore, this research proposes an IDBO-CNN-BiLSTM model combining the swarm intelligence optimization algorithm and deep learning methods. First, the Dung Beetle Optimization (DBO) algorithm is improved by adopting the Latin hypercube sampling, integrating the Osprey Optimization Algorithm (OOA), and introducing an adaptive Gaussian-Cauchy mixture mutation disturbance. The improved DBO (IDBO) algorithm is then utilized to optimize the Convolutional Neural Network-Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (CNN-BiLSTM) model's hyperparameters. Finally, the IDBO-CNN-BiLSTM model is constructed to classify the emotional tendencies of tweets associated with the Hurricane Harvey event. The empirical analysis indicates that the proposed model achieves an accuracy of 0.8033, outperforming other single and hybrid models. In contrast with the GWO, WOA, and DBO algorithms, the accuracy is enhanced by 2.89%, 2.82%, and 2.72%, respectively. This study proves that the IDBO-CNN-BiLSTM model can be applied to assist emergency decision-making in natural disasters.

Volunteer motivations in civilian volunteer search and rescue organizations

Most scholarship on volunteer motivation examines everyday scenarios rather than disaster or emergency contexts. Environmental hazards and their devastating social impacts continue to grow in severity and frequency, creating an increased opportunity for disaster-related volunteerism. Disaster volunteerism diverges from traditional volunteerism in location, timing, activities, and risk. Thus, examining what motivates people to volunteer during disasters is critical. Using interviews and observational data from ethnographic work with civilian volunteer search and rescue (SAR) organizations, this study examined what motivations compelled their volunteers to action. Findings showed that volunteers had similar motivations to the functional perspective on volunteer motivations in everyday contexts, while also uniquely supporting the disaster volunteer sector. Further, findings pointed to an additional motivational concept for external rewards and shifting narratives that operated in a cyclical nature to motivate volunteers within their respective SAR organizations. Combined, these insights offer support for previous research and provide evidence that there are unique factors that may play a critical role in volunteer motivation in disaster settings.

Paw Gaurdian – A Pet Adoption App

Abstract: PawGuardian is a pioneering mobile application designed to revolutionize the dog adoption process, fostering responsible pet ownership and addressing the challenges of pet overpopulation and homelessness. This research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of PawGuardian, exploring its objectives, features, impact on dog adoption rates, and implications for animal welfare. By leveraging technology to connect potential adopters with rescue organizations and shelters, PawGuardian streamlines the adoption journey, enhances transparency, and promotes informed decision-making. Through a user-friendly interface and innovative functionalities, PawGuardian aims to create meaningful connections between adopters and dogs while prioritizing the welfare of animals. Keywords: PawGaurdian, Dog adoption, Mobile application, Responsible pet ownership, Pet overpopulation, Homelessness, Technology, Rescue organizations, Shelters, Transparency.

Participation in a Prison-Based Training Programme Is Beneficial for Rescue Dogs.

Dogs are often relinquished because of behavioural issues which may be exacerbated in rehoming centres. Prison-based dog training programmes (DTPs) may enhance outcomes for rescue dogs by providing socialisation and training opportunities to improve behaviour, welfare and likelihood of rehoming. We assessed whether dogs benefitted from participation, 1-3 times per week, in a prison-based DTP in which male young offenders learn how to train and care for dogs waiting to be rehomed. Within DTP sessions, there was significant improvement on a range of training tasks (n = 42 dogs). Analyses of videos (n = 17 dogs) in the kennels and a training barn pre- and post-DTP participation showed improvement in some positive behaviours, but no significant change in other behaviours. Subjective ratings by staff of the dogs' behaviour were made (n = 20 dogs). Desirable behaviours (e.g., playful/friendly) increased, and most undesirable behaviours (e.g., frustrated and noisy) decreased. Participation in the DTP did not mitigate all negative behaviours. However, improvements are consistent with enhanced welfare and likelihood of successful rehoming. Prison-based DTPs can be effective in supporting the work of animal rescue organisations to improve outcomes for dogs, while offering people in custody an opportunity to engage in purposeful activity and provide a community service.

Characteristics and challenges of companion animal rescue organisations in New Zealand

ABSTRACT Aims To describe the characteristics of companion animal rescue organisations (CARO) in New Zealand; to describe current capacity, resource limitations and challenges of CARO with a particular focus on cats and dogs; and to explore support for creating a national database of CARO in New Zealand. Methods A cross-sectional survey was administered to CARO in New Zealand in May 2022. The survey asked about organisational characteristics, types and numbers of animals cared for, services provided, policies, staffing, funding sources, challenges, and attitudes towards a national database for rescue organisations. Descriptive statistics were provided for all quantitative study variables and free-text comments were analysed for common themes. Results The survey was completed by 106/208 (51%) known CARO distributed across the country. These CARO provided services to an estimated 59,874 homeless animals annually with 86/106 (81%) providing services to cats and/or dogs. Primary services provided by CARO who cared for cats or dogs included rehoming (72/86; 84%) and housing (70/86; 81%) animals. Intake was managed through a combination of strategies. Donations (72/86; 82%) were the main funding source. The 62 registered charities were more likely to report being funded by grants than the 23 non-charities (39/62 (63%) vs. 1/23 (4%); p < 0.001), and non-charities were more likely to self-fund (18/23 (78%) vs. 20/62 (32%); p < 0.001). Nearly half of the CARO that provided workforce information (35/72; 49%) had a workforce of 10 or fewer including volunteers. A total of 5,699 people worked for 86 CARO that care for cats or dogs of whom 4,847 (85%) were part-time volunteers. Of the 72 cat and dog CARO who provided workforce information, 57/72 (79%) relied solely on volunteers. The majority of all 106 CARO respondents (78/106; 73%) indicated they were likely to register on a national database of CARO, subject to addressing concerns about time required and information security. CARO respondents described challenges of insufficient funding, access to veterinary services, and a shortage of volunteers and foster homes, with additional concerns including a lack of public awareness, supportive legislation, and resources. Financial support (90/106; 85%) and policy change (76/106; 72%) were preferred support options. Conclusions This study highlights the significant role played by CARO in New Zealand and the challenges they face, emphasising the need for financial support, legislation, and initiatives extending beyond the rescue sector to reduce the number of animals being surrendered. The findings also suggest a willingness among CARO to participate in a national database.

PET COMPANION HUB

Pet Companion Hub is a multifaceted platform designed to enhance pet care and animal welfare through its three interconnected modules: Pet Adoption, Pet Veterinary, and Pet Shelter. The Pet Adoption module provides a user-friendly interface for individuals to browse and adopt animals in need of homes, promoting responsible pet ownership and reducing shelter overpopulation. Users can access detailed profiles of animals, facilitating informed decision-making and personalized matches. The Pet Veterinary module offers comprehensive veterinary services, including appointment scheduling, medical record management, and expert advice, ensuring pets receive the care they need to thrive. This module empowers pet owners to make informed healthcare decisions and promotes proactive health management. The Pet Shelter module serves as a valuable resource for shelters and rescue organizations, streamlining operations, facilitating communication, and maximizing impact within the community. By providing support to shelters and promoting collaboration, Pet Companion Hub strengthens the infrastructure for caring for and rehoming animals in need. Together, these modules create a holistic approach to pet care and advocacy, fostering a culture of compassion, responsibility, and community engagement in the realm of animal welfare

Fuzzy SVM With Mahalanobis Distance for Situational Awareness-Based Recognition of Public Health Emergencies

In public health emergencies, situational awareness is crucial for swift responses by governments and rescue organizations. In this manuscript, a novel framework is proposed to identify and classify event-specific information, aiming to comprehend concepts, characteristics, and classifications associated with situational awareness in social media emergencies. First, a statistical approach is employed to extract a set of standard features. Second, a category-based latent dirichlet allocation to vector (LDA2vec) model is leveraged to extract topic-based features to enhance accuracy, particularly for unbalanced datasets. Finally, a fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) classifier utilizing the Mahalanobis distance kernel is introduced to improve the detection accuracy of event-specific information. The framework's effectiveness is evaluated using the social media public health dataset, achieving superior filtering capabilities for non-informative data with a precision of 89% and an F1-Score of 91%, surpassing other standard methods.

Chronic phalaris toxicity in macropods is widespread and peaks in July in Victoria, Australia.

Phalaris aquatica is pasture species introduced into Australia during early European settlement. Consumption of the plant can cause the neurological condition chronic phalaris toxicity (CPT) in sheep and cattle. In recent years, there has been an increase in reports of CPT in macropods, which has raised concerns regarding its impacts on their welfare. Currently, little is known about the distribution or seasonal patterns of this disease in wildlife, information pivotal in assessing its potential risks. Between 2021 and 2022, we conducted a survey targeting government bodies, veterinary businesses and wildlife organisations to investigate the locations and time of occurrence of CPT in macropods in the state of Victoria, Australia. We received 13 survey responses, 12 verbal reports, a full record of investigated cases from a university veterinary school and cases from a wildlife rescue organisation. Over the period of 11 years, Victoria had 918 cases of CPT recorded in macropods from 36 local government areas, with cases concentrated centrally just north of the state capital of Melbourne and July (midwinter) being the month with the highest case count (n = 220). There was a significant positive correlation between case count and both the abundance of kangaroos (Macropus giganteus and Macropus fuliginosus) (P < 0.01) and the abundance of P. aquatica (P = 0.009), and a significant negative correlation between annual case count and average rainfall of March (P = 0.016) and April (P = 0.02). Understanding these relationships will assist land and wildlife managers in predicting the risk and magnitude of disease outbreaks of CPT each in Victoria.

Owner expectations and surprises of dog ownership experiences in the United Kingdom.

Although many owners are satisfied by dog ownership, large numbers of dogs are relinquished annually, with an estimated 130,000 dogs cared for each year by rescue organisations in the UK. Unrealistic ownership expectations are a potential factor in the decision to relinquish and therefore understanding what surprises owners about the realities of ownership and how this meets their expectations is vital. Using a retrospective cross-sectional cohort study design, as part of Dogs Trust's National Dog Survey 2021, owners were asked 'what has surprised you most about owning a dog?' and to classify how their experiences had compared with their expectations on a list of aspects of ownership as either more than, less than or as expected. Free text responses (n= 2,000) were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis in NVivo Pro (v.12 QSR) and a quantitative summary of classified expectations (n=354,224) was conducted in R. Many aspects of ownership were reported to be as expected, however a discrepancy between expectation and reality regarding some aspects was revealed. The cost of vet visits was greater than expected for the majority of respondents (52%), whilst other factors that often exceeded expectations included buying/rehoming cost (33%) and amount of patience needed (25%). Damage to furniture was less than expected for many (50%) as was damage to garden (33%). From the thematic analysis, four themes were generated that reflected what surprised owners most about ownership: emotional connectedness of human-dog relationships; dog's impact on human health/wellbeing; understanding what dogs are like; and meeting the demands of ownership. Overall these results aid our understanding of dog-human interactions, highlighting the complexity of the dog-owner relationship which may come with unanticipated costs. Whilst this study's results are reassuring given many aspects of ownership were as expected, and surprises were often positive, some areas had greater impacts than expected, raising opportunities for intervention, resources or support. The aim would be to manage owners' expectations prior to acquisition or ensure these are more realistically met, reducing the likelihood of negative welfare implications for both dog and owner.

Companion animal adoption and relinquishment during the COVID-19 pandemic: The experiences of animal rescue staff and volunteers.

There has been a paucity of research into the experiences of animal rescue staff and volunteers during COVID-19. The aim of this qualitative research was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companion animal rescue organisations and their staff and volunteers, and to develop a set of recommendations on how to reduce the risk to companion animal welfare during a crisis. Descriptive thematic analysis was used to explore the experiences of staff and volunteers from 28 animal rescue organisations, most of which were based in the UK. Other surveyed countries included Germany, the Republic of Ireland, France, Spain, the USA and Australia. We identify three key themes that reflect the challenges faced by pet rescue organisations during the pandemic: (1) impact on animals; (2) impact on identity; and (3) impact on organisational processes. Key recommendations include the promotion of co-operation and modifications within the sector, the need to understand, and change, detrimental pet-owner behaviours, and the need to clarify the identity of animal rescue organisations within the Government. Both positive and negative outcomes were experienced by animal rescue organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings should be considered for future crises and indeed the everyday operating procedures of companion animal rescue organisations.

Volunteer dispatch considering fatigue effect and satisfaction in emergency situation

Rescue organization scheduling is a hot issue in the field of emergency management, in which the participation of volunteer rescue organizations, a social force, is of great significance to improve the efficiency of emergency rescue. In the case of known rescue services required by the affected place and the information of rescue services provided by volunteer rescue organizations, the goal is to maximize the satisfaction of the victims and minimize the fatigue of the volunteer rescue organizations. The volunteer rescue organization scheduling problem is an NP-hard problem. To solve the studied problem model, two multi-objective optimization algorithms are applied in this article. With the goal of improving the overall rescue efficiency of volunteer rescue organizations implementing rescue at the disaster site during a single emergency, this study analyzes the practical problems related to emergency rescue, taking into account the effects of the time sensitivity of the disaster victims, the preference of the rescue services, the fatigue accumulation rate of the volunteer rescue organizations, and the matching of the rescue skills. Finally, this article distills some scheduling strategies applicable to emergency volunteer rescue organizations, hoping to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for the Emergency Management Center and related emergency management departments to better configure and optimize emergency human resource scheduling problems.

"It's my calling", Canadian dog rescuers' motives and experiences for engaging in international dog rescue efforts.

The importation of rescue dogs has become an increasingly common occurrence in recent years, often involving industrialized countries as the ultimate destination. However, international dog rescue activities have attracted considerable criticism from the veterinary community and the public due to the associated zoonotic disease and public health risks, as well as the potential poor behaviour of international rescue dogs. The Government of Canada has also recently placed a temporary suspension on all commercial dog imports from non-rabies free countries due to the growing concerns of the zoonotic disease risks. To understand the perspectives and experiences of stakeholders involved in dog import activities in Canada, we interviewed nine members in leadership positions of Canadian-based international dog rescue organizations. Thematic analysis of interview dialogue yielded three themes: 1) Motive, which described the reason behind participants' involvement in international dog rescue; 2) Challenge, which described the major difficulties faced in participants' dog rescue work; 3) Duty, which described participants' beliefs on responsible dog rescue practices. Members of international dog rescue organizations described being driven by strong desires to provide animal and humanitarian aid. However, local dog rescue efforts were constrained by logistical and societal barriers unique to the Canadian context. Additionally, the current study revealed both similarities and differences in occupational experiences between international dog rescue organizations and other animal care professions. Specifically, difficulties with the emotional burden associated with caregiving professions was also present within dog rescue work. However, international dog rescue members also experienced additional challenges due to the stigma surrounding international dog rescue operations. Further research on attitudes held by other stakeholders involved in dog import activities, as well as members of Canadian communities needing dog rescue aid may provide meaningful inputs on how to better support and facilitate local and international dog rescue efforts.

Mass Casualty Incident Preparedness for Airport Emergencies: Report From an Aeroplane Crash Simulation at Guglielmo Marconi Airport, Bologna (Italy).

Airport emergencies are rare but potentially catastrophic; therefore, system preparedness is crucial. Airport emergency plans include the organization of emergency drills on a regular basis, including full-scale exercises, to train and test the entire rescue organization. This report describes a full-scale simulation at Bologna International Airport, Italy, in October 2022, involving local EMS resources. A full-scale aeroplane crash was simulated on the airport ground, activating the Airport emergency plan, and requiring the intervention of supplementary resources (ambulances, medical cars, and other emergency vehicles). Twenty-seven simulated patients were evaluated by EMS: START triage assessment was correct for 81.48% of patients; 11.11% were over-triaged and 7.41% were under-triaged. All patients were transported to the hospitals of the area. The simulation ended 2 hours and 28 minutes after the initial alarm. The response time proved a good response. Triage accuracy was correct in more than 80% of simulated patients. The availability of a trauma centre within 6 kilometres allowed the transportation of a quota of patients directly from the event, without affecting transportation times. Areas for improvement were identified in the communication within the different agencies and in moving ambulances within the airport runway without airport personnel guidance.

The European way of Ukraine for the organization of search and rescue at sea

The article examines the legal framework for the organization of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine in the context of European integration, and also investigates the existing shortcomings and overlaps in the distribution of functions and assignment of tasks between the State structures of Ukraine, and identifies the areas for reforming the organization of search and rescue at sea to improve efficiency and bring Ukraine closer to the state of search and rescue at sea in the European Union (EU).&#x0D; The relevance of the study lies in the strategic direction of Ukraine towards EU membership and the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to that of the European Union, which requires reform of legal regulation in the field of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine.&#x0D; Ukraine, as a maritime state and a member of the International Maritime Organization, has assumed an international obligation under the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, and acceded to it by Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 2786-XII of November 17, 1992.&#x0D; Accordingly, the purpose of the publication is to conduct a theoretical study of the issues related to Ukraine’s implementation of the international obligation to search for and save human life in case of maritime disaster in the context of European integration and trends for its improvement.&#x0D; The methodological basis of the study is a systematic structural analysis of the organizational (institutional) and legal regulation of search and rescue at sea.&#x0D; The article also provides conclusions on the areas of legal reform and improvement of the efficiency of the organization of search and rescue at sea in Ukraine with a view to improving the legal regulation of this area of legal relations to a level which would be in line with international standards and bring it closer to the legislation of the European Union.