AVMA pledges up to $500,000 in disaster aid

SCHAUMBURG, ILL. — In emergency session, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) leaders voted unanimously last month to give up to $500,000 for disaster relief.

The financial gift will match donations to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation's (AVMF) Animal Disaster Relief and Response Fund. The restricted account is designed to support Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMAT) as well as animals and veterinarians affected by Hurricane Katrina. AVMA's portion is slated to come from the group's estimated $24 million financial reserve.

How to help

At presstime, $100,000 had been received with more donated daily, says Dr. Tracy Rhodes, Executive Board member and newly appointed AVMF director. The foundation, recently plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement, will redeem itself, he says.

"We've had some e-mails that people heard we were not an efficiently run organization, so they're not donating," Rhodes says. "But I can assure you all of the money received will be deposited into the relief account, and only 12 percent will go to administration fees. If someone gives us 100 bucks, 88 is going into that fund."

Divvying up funds

The fund will provide support the four VMAT units deployed under the Federal Emergency Management Agency. VMAT members, in addition to caring for mass casualties and survivors among animal populations, address health concerns associated with diseases from contaminated water, food safety, wild animal bites and rabies cases.

Apart from the fund, AVMA already has slated $270,000 to go to VMATs this year. The government offers VMATs no monetary assistance, AVMA President Dr. Henry Childers says.

"That's a real problem," he says. "The costs can be immense."

Considering that VMAT relies so heavily on AVMA support, leaders now must make tough decisions regarding how much of fund's money will fuel VMAT and what percentage will support AVMA members in affected areas.

Many practitioners will not have a source of income for months, Executive Board Chairman Dr. Bud Hertzog says.

"A lot of our member veterinarians are financially devastated, we know that," he says. "This is a concern we'll address. To be honest, the whole thing is absolutely overwhelming. We've never dealt with a disaster of this magnitude affecting these numbers of veterinarians and animals."

Inclusive

Still, AVMA is no stranger to offering disaster relief. In January, the group was criticized by its House of Delegates for not conferring with members before promising $500,000 in tsunami aid for Southeast Asia. Although the Executive Board makes AVMA's financial decisions, Hertzog says some House members were consulted before the Sept. 7 emergency vote.

"For this situation, they felt we should do something comparable to the tsunami fund," he says. "We know what money is raised is just a small portion of what's needed."