Humane Society Of Tulsa Receives New Transport & Disaster Relief Truck To Help Pets In Crisis

The Humane Society of Tulsa has launched a new transport and disaster relief truck to help pets in crisis. They are calling the transport truck “Zipper” in honor of a dog rescued from an Oklahoma shelter who was transported to a loving home in Nashville Tennessee.

The 40ft trailer will be used for taking pets from overcrowded Oklahoma shelters to states who want them and to save pets in crisis. Many of those trips will be to northern states where the demand for pets to adopt is much higher.

Humane Society leaders say they will be able to take the truck to other states during hurricanes or other natural disasters to rescue pets from shelters in the line of impact. In past years they have taken hundreds of animals from southern states impacted by hurricanes and then sent them north to be adopted.

The trailer can hold up to 80 animals at once and they expect to move up to 5,000 animals around the country every year. The trailer has a washing station, areas to feed pets, and a side canopy that opens so people on the outside can look in and see pets at adoption events.

Transport Coordinator Lawrence DePriest said the grant for this truck from the Banfield Foundation is a game-changer for animals in Oklahoma and beyond.

“We have the capabilities to pull animals from those shelters that are overcrowded and having to euthanize for space and now transport them to shelters that are empty in other areas and give those animals a chance at having a good happy life,” DePriest said.

DePriest said it will also be a key resource in adoption and spay and neuter events as well.

“So we can have our spay and neuter vehicle where the surgery happens and then we can bring them into this unit for a climate-controlled recovery because that’s always your biggest fear when you’re altering animals is that they get cold,” DePriest said.

The “Zipper” will make its first trip full of animals next week to Nashville Tennessee for an adoption event. 50 dogs and cats are scheduled to be on the trip that DePriest said will hopefully give them a forever home.