The Arkansas Conference is partnering with Melissa McMath Hatfield, a leading canine behavioral expert, to help pet owners understand how to comfort, rehabilitate, and protect pets following natural disasters and traumatic events. This virtual webinar will be held via Zoom on September 4 at 3 p.m. and is sponsored by ARUMC Disaster Response and the Pinnacle View UMC Pet Ministry.
The idea was presented to the Conference by Gayle Fiser, Pinnacle View UMC’s pet ministry coordinator, after seeing firsthand how traumatized pets were after the seven devastating tornadoes hit Northwest Arkansas on May 26, 2024.
“When I worked with the Disaster Response team following the Northwest Arkansas tornadoes, I took lots of Pet Prayer Blankets expecting there to be deceased pets or missing pets, but what I found instead was stressed pets,” said Gayle Fiser, Pinnacle View UMC’s pet ministry coordinator. “The pet parents had kept their pets safe with them (even 7 cats in a bathtub), but the pets were either clingy, not eating, or exhibiting stress in other ways.”
When Fiser returned to Little Rock, she contacted Hatfield for advice to pass along to Disaster Response leaders as well as pet parents, which led to the idea for the webinar.
“According to UMC National, there is little information available on post-disaster help for pets, and we would like Arkansas to be the leader in this field,” Fiser said.
Hatfield will lead the Zoom webinar with insight, advice, and experience. She earned a master’s in counseling psychology and is a retired licensed psychological examiner. Her mission is to enhance the human-dog relationship through understanding, knowledge, and empathy. Hatfield has been an Association of Professional Dog Trainers conference speaker and her articles are featured often in APDT’s Chronicle of the Dog. She is the 2022 recipient of the Maxwell Medallion for her contributions to articles in the category of “Behavior and Training”. Currently, she has a private behavior consulting practice where her main focus is performing temperament assessments and behavior evaluations of dogs who are exhibiting mental health issues. Learn more about Hatfield and her work with pets here.
All are invited to join us on September 4 at 3 p.m. to learn more about how to help pets after a disaster. Registration for this webinar is currently open. You can register here.
Read more about how Gayle Fiser and the Disaster Response worked to help pets after the tornadoes here.