Lakeville gets pet oxygen masks as part of Project Breathe

Celia, a 4-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was patient as her human lifted her onto the lectern at the Lakeville City Council meeting Monday night.

She was unperturbed when Mary Francis put a closefitting oxygen mask over her snout in front of the mayor and council members. But when it came time to leave, the little dog was ready to go.

Francis works for Invisible Fence of the Twin Cities and was at the City Council meeting to donate eight animal rescue oxygen mask kits to the Lakeville Fire Department — two for each fire station. The kits come with three sizes of masks to fit everything from a kitten to a German shepherd, and a slip lead, a type of leash that lets firefighters or EMTs control a frightened or aggressive dog. An instruction sheet in each kit lists the recommended oxygen level for each animal.

Although the U.S. Fire Administration doesn't keep track of the number of pets that die in fires, Invisible Fence said its sources have put the number at 40,000 to 150,000 each year. Francis, of Hastings, and others from Invisible Fence said the company has donated more than 11,000 pet oxygen masks since it started Project Breathe in 2006.

Many departments across the Twin Cities and into western Wisconsin have been recipients. In the south metro, Apple Valley, Rosemount and Hastings all have received masks. Eagan will get them Dec. 14. Donations are also planned in Jordan and Inver Grove Heights.

A post on the blog SidewalkDog in summer 2014 created an explosion in requests for donations, said Andrea Murray, another Invisible Fence dealer.

It was a resident, new to Lakeville, who brought the masks to the attention of Fire Chief Mike Meyer and Assistant Chief Charles Smith.

"We do see pets in fires frequently," Smith said. "Before, we had to use mouth-to-snout [resuscitation], which isn't the best idea, or try to use human-shaped oxygen masks. Those aren't effective or efficient."

Smith said he's resuscitated a couple of cats and a German shepherd using a human oxygen mask.

Nealon Thompson, fire chief in Apple Valley, said his department had three of the masks and received three more from Invisible Fence on Aug. 27. So far, he said, the department has had three saves.

"In today's world, people's pets are just as much their family as their children," he said. "Humans have the priority, but once all the humans are safe and out of the house, in the normal course of our business, if we can conserve the life of a pet, we will."

In one rescue this summer, firefighters found a dog, unresponsive, in the basement of a house on fire. A crew retrieved the pet mask kit, applied oxygen and "before we left the scene, that dog was on its feet and loving its owner," Thompson said.

After the City Council meeting in Lakeville on Monday, Francis and veterinarian Dr. Paula Schanck of Southfork Animal Hospital headed to the fire station across the street to show firefighters how to use the masks.

Just as the women and Celia, the demo dog arrived, the firefighters got called to a fire. Francis and Schanck said they'd return another time and directed Meyer, the chief, to training videos available online.

Pat Pheifer • 952-746-3284