Animal Assisted Crisis Response Association

AACRA

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Statement of Mission:

The purpose of the Association is to provide qualified therapy dogs to work with counselors assisting victims, friends, families, rescue workers and any one else affected by disasters, natural and manmade, and criminal acts. To this end, the Association maintains a registry of such therapy dogs grouped by state and indexed by the name of each dog's handler. Only dogs which have an Identification or other evidence of certification by a recognized evaluation organization may be placed in the registry. In addition to the registry, the Association shall:

1. maintain liaison with private and governmental agencies providing crisis response;
2. educate responding agencies, their personnel and the public in the value of therapy dogs used in crisis response;
3. encourage handlers to set up a local network in order to provide immediate response at a local level and for those events that may not attract national attention;
4. provide educational materials, communicate information and initiate training sessions in order to ensure informed participation by responding teams;
5. design a protocol to be followed by a responding team from initial contact to debriefing;
6. cooperate with other organizations or individuals who research the animal-human relationship and provide information gleaned from the crisis response in the furtherance of such understanding.

(Above: Tetonka on Standby)