Where do we serve?
CMDART serves the local and regional communities of Central Massachusetts and
Worcester County Region 4 of Massachusetts Emergency Management and Region 2,
Department of Public Health Emergency Preparedness. The team has deployed to
neighboring states and some members have served in national incidents including
Hurricanes Katrina, Ike, Gustav, local and national floods, and a local ice storm.  

At this time we have formal agreements to serve many of the towns within Region 2
of Public Health and Massachusetts Emergency Management Region 4. If your town
wishes to set up an agreement with CMDART, contact president@cmdart.org to
arrange a meeting to discuss instituting a Memorandum of Understanding with our
organization.

Once an agreement is signed, we can assist your Animal Control Officer or Emergency
Manager with outreach to establish local emergency animal responders for your
community. Please note that as of June 24th, 2010, the Board of Directors for
CMDART voted to only respond to those organizations, agencies or municipalities
who have signed an agreement.

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What we are not.
CMDART is not a day-to-day rescue or rescue placement organization, but works
closely with local animal control officers and other local organizations to find
placements or re-unite animals with their owners following an incident.

When and with whom do we serve?
CMDART members do not self deploy. For local incidents in our community,
CMDART recognizes the designated lead agent or agency in the disaster operation
and will follow the Incident Command System (ICS) under the governing
authority, whether that be local animal control, emergency management, the
American Red Cross, fire department, or another entity. Members are cross-trained
with the State of  Massachusetts Disaster Animal Response Team (SMART) and
national organizations including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS),
United Animal Nations (UAN, EARS), Noah's Wish, International Fund for
Animal Welfare (IFAW), American Red Cross of Central Mass, Medical Reserve
Corp, Community Emergency Response Teams, and others. Should a statewide or
national activation be initiated, CMDART is committed to integrating its work with
the State of Massachusetts Animal Response Team (SMART) guidelines and/ or the
National Incident Management System (NIMS) under the direction of ESF 17.