The American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV) has established a database of people who would like to volunteer their services for the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster. The database contains additional information about each registrant that enables agencies involved in the cleanup to recruit people based on their needs. While the database focuses on people with some interest or expertise in wildlife, people who wish to register do not need to be members of the AAZV. They don’t need to be veterinarians, either, so we’re encouraging biologists, zoologists, veterinary technicians, etc. to register.

The information contained in this database will be made available only to agencies that are involved in the clean up, and only when requested by them. AAZV will not use the database for any other purpose.

We feel it is a useful tool because we can provide lists to agencies based on their individual needs. As an example, if an agency is looking for volunteers who can work in August, who have experience in oiled birds, who can mobilize within a week’s notice, and who have a place to stay near the gulf coast in Mississippi, we can select for those parameters and provide the list.

Please follow this link to the registration module to get an idea of the data we’re collecting and to see how easy it is to register.

We are asking you to help spread the news about this list. Would you be so kind as to make the information available to your members and others by distributing it on your listserve and/or posting on your Website? You can direct people to the AAZV home page: www.aazv.org and follow the links from there.

There are no guarantees that people registering on the database will be called, and we warn people not to self deploy.