Michigan State University Extension says a new survey shows 37% of past participants in their livestock training for emergency workers have responded to at least one live stock accident.
They conducted a survey on past participants who attended their 2018-2024 trainings.
The team says that every person who answered in the survey reported being able to use something they learned from the emergency response to accidents involving livestock (ERAIL), training that they attended in the past.
In the trainings, half of the course are spent in the classroom talking about different livestock species while the other half involves hands-on training with the animals.
"We try to bring in some of the various livestock species so that our emergency first responders can get some hands-on experience," Jared Jaborek, with the MSU extension, said. "For them to begin to feel a bit more comfortable working with livestock in case they have to respond to an accident that does involving livestock."
They say that the training provides first responders with education on how to deal with animals that are compromised and how to contain loose animals.
This program was created back in 2018 to help meet the needs of the ever-growing livestock industry in Michigan.
"We just wanted to have a training, some educational content that we could provide emergency first responders with so that they were better prepared to deal with those types of accidents when they took place." Jaborek said.
They have two trainings coming up this fall with one in the Upper Peninsula and another in the Lower Peninsula.
