Animals: emergency response: California Veterinary Emergency Team program.

Existing law establishes the University of California, under the administration of the Regents of the University of California. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services, in coordination with all interested state agencies with designated response roles in the state emergency plan and interested local emergency management agencies, to jointly establish by regulation a standardized emergency management system for use by all emergency response agencies, and to include specified components. Existing law requires the office to approve, adopt, and incorporate the California Animal Response Emergency System (CARES) program developed under the oversight of the Department of Food and Agriculture into the standardized emergency management system. This bill would require the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine to develop a program called the California Veterinary Emergency Team, and would require the program to assist in the support and training of a network of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals to assist in the veterinary care of household and domestic animals and livestock in emergencies, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. The bill would also require the program to conduct or support research on best practices for the evacuation and care of the animals in disasters. The bill would require the university, the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, and the Director of Emergency Services to develop a memorandum of understanding for the university to consult with the secretary and the director regarding the coordination of the program's activities with the state government's disaster response practices and the deployment of the program's participants during disasters. The bill would require these provisions to apply to the university only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by resolution, make any of these provisions applicable to the university. The bill would establish the California Veterinary Emergency Team Fund in the State Treasury to, upon appropriation, be used solely to support the program. The bill would specify that moneys in the fund are not to be considered offsets to any other state funds appropriated to the university.