Pet oxygen masks donated to Oakland VFD

May 27, 2012
Pet oxygen masks donated to Oakland VFD

Elaine Blaisdell Cumberland Times-News

— OAKLAND — Resident Michael McGuire recently donated two pet oxygen mask kits to the Oakland Volunteer Fire Department. McGuire, who works in anesthesia, donated the masks after seeing a photo in the newspaper of a firefighter resuscitating a dog with an oxygen mask made for a person.

“I have a lot of cats and dogs and realized the fire department didn’t have the right equipment,” said McGuire. “It’s very important to have a pet mask to ventilate a dog or cat. Because of the shape of their nose and mouth, they have a cone-shaped mask.”

McGuire purchased his mask from Wag’N Enterprises because he liked the fact that the masks came with special storage bags and decals.

“The decals make it easy for firefighters to determine which fire truck has the pet masks,” said McGuire.

In the future, McGuire plans on donating a mask to the Garrett County Sheriff’s Office for its K-9 unit, in case they ever get injured in the line of duty.

Pet oxygen masks are specially designed to fit the snouts of different sized animals as small as a ferret to as large as a foal. The masks are sold by Wag’N Enterprises through the O2 Fur Life initiative (www.wagnpetsafety.com), which has the goal of ensuring all first-responders in North America carry them. So far, Wag’N has placed masks in more than 1,200 departments in the U.S. and Canada. In 2010, the Regional Education Service Agency 8 purchased 22 pet masks for Mineral, Grant, Hampshire and Hardy and other numerous counties in West Virginia, according to a Wag’N 02 Fur Life list of supporters.

Contact Elaine Blaisdell at eblaisdell@times-news.com.

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