PRESS RELEASE: Safety Gear Helps Breathe Life Back into Pets

Every year, October is honored as National Fire Safety Month and school children across the country learn how to best protect themselves in the event of a fire. Unfortunately, those classes aren’t available for some of the most vulnerable members of our families - our pets. An estimated 500,000 pets are affected by fires in the United States and over 40,000 pets die each year due to smoke asphyxiation. Thankfully, Virginia-based Wag’N Enterprises has a plan for your pets and your community.

Launched in February 2008, the O2 Fur Life Program allows first responders across the country access to critical equipment that can save your pet’s life. Pet Oxygen Masks are necessary to resuscitate animals suffering from smoke inhalation. Unfortunately, most municipalities across the country don’t allow their first responders (police, fire departments, EMS) to purchase equipment for non-human life support.

Enter Wag’N Enterprises’ O2 Fur Life Program.

As a distribution channel for first responders, Wag’N provides emergency organizations the ability to carry pet oxygen masks in their vehicles. Wag'N also offers pet parents and first responders the training necessary to effectively mitigate, prepare and respond to emergencies that impact pet health and safety.

Since its inception last year, the O2 Fur Life Program has provided more than 50 Fire Departments across the United States and Canada with oxygen masks and “Pet Oxygen Masks on Board” decals for their stations and vehicles. “We’re quickly finding out just how great of a need this is,” explains Ines de Pablo, Chief Wag’N Officer. “Dryer fires, furnace fires, pets knocking candles over with their tails, you name it, fires are started because of it. We were shocked to find that most fire departments aren’t equipped to save your pet’s life in an emergency. These pet oxygen masks can be used on dogs, cats, ferrets, birds, hamsters, alpacas, wolves and many more species.”

Since the commencement of National Fire Safety Month, the O2 Fur Life Program has made enormous strides to provide pet oxygen masks to every fire department across the United States and Canada. Altogether, one hundred and eleven pet oxygen mask kits have been added to first responder apparatus in October alone.

Twenty eight were donated by Wag’N through its Wag’N Fellowship Fund. Wag’Ns Fellowship Program uses donated monies to distribute pet oxygen masks nationally to organizations in need. Wag’N is also committed to helping communities raise enough money to sponsor local departments. About another dozen kits were provided to pet parents whose pets require oxygen therapy to improve their quality of living.

Explains de Pablo, “We’re making great strides, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. Our goal is to make every community across the country aware of the solutions that will help save the lives of pets and law enforcement K9’s.”

For a complete list of departments that have recently been oxygenated with pet masks, visit: www.petoxygenmasks.org

To find out how to help your community, visit www.petoxygenmasks.org

To learn more about Pet Oxygen Masks visit www.petoxygenmask.blogspot.com.

For more information about Wag’N Enterprises, visit www.petoxygenmasks.org

About Wag’N Enterprises
Founded in 2007, Wag’N offers pet parents and first responders the necessary gear, supplies and training to effectively mitigate, prepare and respond to emergencies that impact pet health and safety. Chief Wag’N Officer, Ines de Pablo holds a Masters Degree in Risk, Crisis & Emergency Management from the prestigious George Washington University in Washington D.C. and has over a decade of extensive field training experience under her belt.  Wag’N Enterprises is a branded and extensive collection of purposefully designed and all-encompassing crafted tools and services giving people and their pets’ peace of mind in case of an emergency.