Animal rescue training

Meet Karma and Angel. They aren't your average horses. Both have been buried in the mud dozens of times - a scenario that can be deadly.

"They don't mind going in the mud, they're very, very good - they lay down on command," says Dr. Rebecca Gimenez.

They're part of large animal emergency rescue training...with their help firefighters train for animal disasters.

"Many firefighters have never even touched a horse, they might of seen a horse, but they've never touched one and so part of the training is to get them used to 1600 pounds of animal," says Dr. Gimenez.

Dr. Rebecca Gimenez is the rescue instructor. She says, "For the animals it can be life and death, but more importantly than that it's really a human event."

A human event because Gimenez says many times people put their own lives in danger trying to save animals.

"It's very dangerous to get in any confined space with a large animal. They think oh my goodness there is sirens, there is people - I need to get out of here."

In this training at Lollypop Farm firefighters learn how to best help the animals with the equipment they've already got. They simulate mud, water and trench rescues. Emergency responders are also trained to track down escape artists like Dexter here - get within 10 feet of him, he's on the run.

There are no national statistics on how many animal emergencies there are each year, but Gimenez says it happens more often than you think.

"Every single firefighter I've ever talked to, every single police officer I've ever talked to has at least been to one of these kinds of incidents," says Dr. Gimenez.

And with most natural disasters like hurricanes or floods - come animal emergencies...for rescue workers preparation could mean the difference between life and death for animal and human alike.