INTERVIEW: Volunteer rescues animals from dangerous storms on new series

Animal Storm Squad, the new reality series on Nat Geo Wild, follows a group of volunteers who run into the dangerous action of intense storms rather than running away. Their mission is to help those pets and animals left behind, waiting for a helpful hand.

Karissa Hadden is the star of the new series and founder of the charity Never Stop Saving Animal Disaster Rescue Transport. Her and the team’s adventures begin broadcasting Friday at 10 p.m.

“You can expect a lot of suspense for sure, a lot of excitement,” Hadden said in a recent phone interview. “You’ll be able to see a fantastic group of volunteers bond together, learn together, train, rescue lots of animals, experience different conditions that we’ve ever experienced.”

On the premiere episode, TV viewers can expect to see Never Stop Saving volunteers rescuing dogs, cats and even bear cubs. Hadden called this “wildfire” episode “quite the experience and quite exciting.”

When news of disasters strike the United States and around the world, often the animal and pet factors are missing from reports. Ensuring local residents are taken care of is a top priority, for good reason. However, Hadden always asks more questions after seeing the reports.

“It’s not that we don’t care, or hear or pay attention to the fatalities or the people affected,” she said. “We look more or less at the amount of homes destroyed or the amount of time that the residents had to flee from their homes because often if they have very little warning, they open the doors, and run and hope the best for the animals. So we always take a look at what’s been affected, the area, and we don’t hear often about animals being displaced or missing until weeks after. And we don’t wait that long.”

Hadden and the team travel to the affected area right away to offer their assistance. Once people are accounted for in the town and everyone has been pulled from buildings, operations start to shift toward these animal volunteers. “Some of the authorities can then offer more of their resources to help with the animals,” she said about the relationship with first responders. “But the authorities — the fire, and the police and the ambulance — are definitely there for the people, which is why I started Never Stop Saving, so we can specifically help with the animals.”

Hadden wanted to keep the adventures that TV viewers will see on Animal Storm Squad a secret, but she did say there will be several successful rescues and reunions with families. Viewers will see her looking under houses, porches and piles of rubble.

One challenge documented on the show is trying to reunite rescued animals with their owners. Because the owners often evacuate, and sometimes never make it back, some animals after a disaster need to enter a foster program. Hadden’s charity has been successful at finding “forever homes” for stray cats and dogs after destruction.

Here’s how it often works: Hadden and her fellow volunteers often chase storms, such as a tornado in the Midwest. A forecaster on the team will see a funnel forming and alert the authorities. After it’s safe, the charity offers immediate search and rescue operations.

For other disasters, like hurricanes and fires, the safety issue is different. The team needs to go in afterward because the conditions are not amenable for operations during the weather event. Even when chasing tornadoes, a dangerous activity, Hadden hangs “pretty far back.”

“I’m a pretty go-go-go person,” she said. “I will rescue 16 hours a day until I feel it’s time to go to bed or take a rest, and the animals are going to be OK for the night. So probably the toughest part is just having the [camera] crew keep up with my wild, crazy chases and uphills, downhills and whatnot. But … they have a big heart and love for animals as well. So they’ve been really, really good with everything.”

Hadden started in this line of work a few years ago after a life-changing event. A friend called her up in May 2013 and said he found a litter of kittens with no mother in Oklahoma City. Their house was destroyed, and her friend didn’t know what to do.

“And with me being a vet assistant back here in Libby, Ontario, I first stepped him through how to take care of the kittens, keep them warm, get them the formula as quick as possible because you don’t know the last time when they would have fed off their mother,” she said of the vivid memory. “With all the destruction and the power lines being out, I spent several hours making phone calls in and around Oklahoma City [where the kittens were located] … trying to find anybody that could either get to the rubble to pick up these kittens or a place for him to take them.”

Three of the five kittens unfortunately died; however, Hadden’s friend ended up keeping one, while another friend kept the second survivor (that one today is named Thunder).

“It was kind of from that moment on after I realized that three out of the five kittens had passed that I would never want that to happen to my animals or to anybody’s animals,” she said. “That’s when I thought, you know what, I need to start a mobile rescue. We go out and help forecast the storm, and make alerts to the community, and then go out and help the animals afterward.”

She added: “It was definitely a life changer how one certain day can just impact your life so greatly.”

For Hadden, this type of volunteering is personal.

“I recently just lost one of my cats,” she said. “He only has three legs, and he bolted out. He was gone for four days. I searched day and night, didn’t go to work. I just kept looking for him and looking for him, and I was sick to my stomach. I just couldn’t believe that I was missing him so, so much, and I couldn’t find him. And then finally when I did catch him on the Saturday night, the feeling of just relief and love to have him back, and that’s the feeling that I want to give to everybody else after a disaster and a tragedy hits them.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Animal Storm Squad premieres Friday, March 11 at 10 p.m. on Nat Geo Wild. Click here for more information.