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Donation enables critter rescues

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By LISA DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: August 7, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Fido deserves a fighting chance, too.

That's why the Suncoast Animal League donated 45 sets of animal resuscitation masks to Pasco County Fire Rescue on Thursday.

"This will allow us to have a set of masks on all 23 fire engines and 21 rescue units," Rescue Chief C. Duncan Hitchcock says in a written announcement.

"Because of an earlier donation by Pasco County Animal Services, we currently have masks on two air trucks."

The masks come in three sizes - small, medium and large - and can be used on animals from small birds to large dogs.

The reusable masks cost $70 a set.

The nonprofit animal rescue organization, based in Palm Harbor, presented Pasco firefighters the masks at 2 p.m. Thursday at Station 23, 21300 S.R. 54, Land O' Lakes.

Without the masks, rescue crews often are unable to save family pets. Some firefighters have tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on animals.

Last week an animal died in a fire at 6245 Old Trail in Oakwood Estates in New Port Richey.

Today, oxygen masks for animals are used by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center as well as by wildlife rescue operations and police dogs across the country, the announcement states.

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