Paws, is working to give first responders the tools they need to render aid to pets in respiratory distress due to smoke exposure. The nonprofits’ Founder Terry Moriyama was probably destined to lead this animal-saving crusade. The only daughter of a zoologist, she grew up in a home with a menagerie of family members from dogs to birds, to snakes. However, it was a chance encounter with a news story from Florida in 2004, about how firefighters had saved both a hamster and a kitten by the use of an animal-sized resuscitation mask, that had sparked an interest in the mind of Moriyama. Then in 2008 she happened on another article about a local house fire where several pets had died. Santa Clara County Battalion Chief Derek Witmer was quoted in the article, “I am looking into community support to purchase oxygen masks used by veterinarians to keep on fire trucks.” This was just the spark that Moriyama needed as a call THE CALIFORNIA FIRE SERVICE MAGAZINE • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 23 Air For Paws founder Terry Moriyama.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDM2MTY=