Rest assured, Anne Arundel County pet owners: A dog, cat, bird or even a reptile needing oxygen after being rescued from a burning building can be treated with the latest in life-saving equipment.
Oxygen masks are now available for pets at 16 of the county's 30 fire stations, a move that fire officials and animal lovers hope will reduce the number of animals killed by smoke inhalation.
Anne Arundel County fire officials respond to about two dozen to three dozen fires a year that require pet resuscitations, Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, a department spokesman, said yesterday during a demonstration of the masks. He didn't have statistics on animal fatalities.
"Clearly what we're highlighting is the fact that now we have a very special piece of equipment to save [people's] pets, and we never want them re-entering their home once they made it outside," Tobia said.
The masks, donated by a local animal fitness center, protrude in a bubble shape several inches from the face to better fit the large snouts of some animals. They come in different sizes to fit an array of critters and cost about $60 for each set of three.
They are manufactured in New Zealand and have been sold in the United States since 2002. Animals, Inc., a charity in Orange City, Fla., distributes the masks to fire departments and other rescue personnel across the country, said Lisa Husten, a product manager at SurgiVet, which sells the masks.
Fire departments in at least 49 states are using the technology, said Cheryl Crozier, the director of H.E.L.P. Animals, Inc.
"We're at a point now, about once a month, that we're getting a note about firefighters resuscitating sugar gliders, snakes, dogs, cats," Crozier said.
Deborah and Donald Heptner, of Bethlehem, Pa., the proud owners of 72 cats, said the masks helped save the lives of two of their cats, Velvet and Tuffy. Firefighters rescued the pair from a second-floor bedroom during a fire at their home last month. The Heptners weren't home at the time.
"Thank God for those firefighters that had those masks," said Deborah Heptner, a school bus driver, adding that her cats suffered from smoke inhalation, small burns and singed whiskers.
The cats spent four days at a veterinary clinic hooked up to IVs and breathing machines, she said, but they survived and are doing well now.
On hand to model the masks at the Armiger Fire Station in Pasadena was Dora, a 14-month-old chocolate labrador owned by County Executive John R. Leopold.
