Watch Manager Jim Green.
Photo: Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Animal Rescue Manager Jim Green, based at Lyndhurst Fire Station, was presented with the Sheri Holmes Memorial Award for Large Animal Rescue Leadership and Excellence at a recent world conference in Adelaide, Australia.
Experts at the International Large Animal Rescue Conference recognised Jim’s pioneering work in dealing with incidents involving horses and cattle. He was presented with the award by the USA’s Rebecca Gimenez, co-author of the first manual on large animal rescue techniques, who said the award recognised ‘the positive way the UK has responded in this area and in particular Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’.
Jim said, “It was a real honour to be presented with this award and it is testament to the way the UK initiative is viewed by other international animal rescue experts. Large animals in distress pose different challenges to regular human rescue work and in Hampshire, the need to be better prepared has led to us being instrumental in leading on best practice in the UK.
“This award is recognition of all the hard work undertaken by our team in Hampshire.”
Delegates representing the emergency services, vets, researchers and horse organisations travelled from across Australia, New Zealand, USA and India to attend the event.
A new Australasian Large Animal Rescue Standards Forum has now been established, with the aim to create national training standards and greater interface with government and community relating to animals in disasters.
Jim has been asked to be part of the forum and continue assisting Australia in integrating animal rescue, as has been achieved in the UK.
