AHS receives major donation of an animal ambulance to help even more pets

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AHS receives major donation of an animal ambulance to help even more pets

The Arizona Humane Society has a new tool to rescue dogs and cats – an animal ambulance.

It was bought with a $100,000 donation for emergency animal medical technicians (EAMT) who say their goal is to save lives.

"It's very rewarding. This is my dream job," Kiara Johnson Wilson, an EAMT, said. "I couldn't see myself doing anything else."

Being efficient when saving as many lives as possible is key.

"We definitely need more trucks, we need more people on the road, the work volume is definitely more," she said.

That's why they really needed this ambulance. The money was donated in memory of local media personality, Bill Austin, who passed away from bladder cancer.

"Last year, more than 7,400 sick and injured animals were brought in through AHS’ EAMT™ program while AHS Animal Cruelty Investigators performed more than 8,100 cruelty investigations. Thanks to the new "Austin" pet ambulance, AHS will have the ability to help more than approximately 4,300 additional sick, injured and abused pets in our community each year," AHS said in a news release.

"Our EAMTs and our cruelty investigators are out 365 days a year. Being able to have this state of the art beautiful truck on the road, we're going to be able to impact up to potentially thousands more pets in the Valley," Kelsey Dickerson, spokesperson for AHS, said.

"The reason we are very proud of this truck, it is lifted a little more, so we can take it more places. It's got a lot of power and the kennels we have added to the back are a little deeper," Andy Gallo, an EAMT, said.

Gallo says the stuff they see out in the field is tough to talk about.

"We deal with everything. We deal with hoards, which kind of seems to be one of our biggest ones right now," he explained.

But knowing they're making a difference, giving these animals a better life, is what keeps them going.

"Horrific situations, then we can see where they end up. The situation itself we don't necessarily like to talk about, some we can't talk about, but once we see the outcome a few days down the road, a week down the road, a month down the road, it makes everything worth it, everything worth it," Gallo said.