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Hero Dog Awards Honor Therapy Pup that Inspired Law Against Abusing Animals

Mission Manager congratulates this year’s Hero Dog  “Susie” – a pit bull mix that was nearly burned to death but lived to help her owner and inspired tougher laws to punish animal abuses in North Carolina. Susie was among eight Hero Dog nominees that were honored at the  2014 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards™ gala  on Saturday — including Mission Manager-sponsored K9 Bretagne, who represented the Search and Rescue Category, and her owner and long-time handler, Denise Corliss of Cypress, Texas. 

2D274906883341-1D274906737384-today-hero-dog-Susie-140905.blocks_desktop_largeThe star-studded awards show will air October 30 at 8 pm ET/PT, 7 pm Central Time. The show was hosted by television and film star James Denton and model and animal advocate Beth Stern, accompanied by a galaxy of stars and presenters. Wilson Phillips provided the lead musical performances, which brought down the house.   

As reported by the American Humane Association (see article), Susie was only a puppy when her owner beat her savagely and set her on fire, leaving her for dead in a local park in Greensboro, North Carolina. After being rescued by a local animal shelter and nursed back to health, she was adopted by Donna Lawrence, who had been the victim of a terrible dog attack that nearly killed her and left her without the ability to have children.

Together, they helped each other heal from their physical and emotional wounds, triumphing over pain and fear to become voices for abused animals and helping pass “Susie’s Law” in North Carolina, which calls for harsher penalties for convicted animal abusers.

Mission Manager’s Hero Dog nominee, Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany,”) is a 15-year-old golden retriever that is one of two surviving search dogs from Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She now works with the Cy Fair Volunteer Fire Department helping school kids learn to read – just by listening.

The Hero Dog Awards were created to celebrate the powerful relationship between dogs and people and recognize extraordinary acts of heroism performed by ordinary dogs. During a nationwide search, 135 dogs from all across the country were nominated and more than one and a half million votes were cast by the American public, culminating in the selection of eight extraordinary canine finalists.Eva Decozio, Susie, Chaney, Bretagne, Kai, Kota, Xena, XXon, JJ

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Mission Manager Teams Up with the American Humane Association to Enhance Animal Rescue Efforts

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 24, 2014 – As part of its commitment to help first responders save lives and property, Mission Manager, Inc. is pleased to announce a collaboration with the American Humane Association aimed at enhancing the association’s Red Star® team’s nationwide animal rescue efforts.  Mission Manager, one of the most widely used cloud-based emergency management tools, has supported approximately 5,000 missions over the past three years.

Under the arrangement, Mission Manager will donate its software and a portion of its revenues to the American Humane Association. Mission Manager provides a turnkey solution for mission planning and real-time situational awareness.

Based on three core principals – preparation, readiness and execution – the software provides a team-based operational environment for day-to-day tasks and serves as an online command center during incidents. Mission Manager features automated reporting tools, multiple communications vehicles and extensive mapping capabilities.

team-31 American Humane Association’s Red Star volunteer responders are trained to help animals during or after a disaster, or as a result of animal cruelty – bringing vital skills in animal handling as well as necessary supplies and resources to set-up and operate temporary shelters and/or conduct field rescue missions.

“We’re excited to use Mission Manager, which will automate our Red Star Team’s administrative tasks and significantly enhance the volunteers’ rescue efforts. Until now, we’ve had to organize our team of nearly 200 nationwide volunteers by pen and paper,” said Paul Raybould, American Humane Association Chief Innovation Officer.

“With Mission Manager’s support, we’re able to do a better job than ever before in meeting the needs of animals during times of crisis.”

“Our reason for being is to help first responders save lives and property – whether their callout involves a missing person, an animal rescue effort or catastrophic event,” said Michael Berthelot, President and CEO of Mission Manager. “That’s why our collaboration with American Humane Association is such a fit. We’re proud to partner in the pursuit of saving animal lives.”

A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION’S HERO DOG AWARDS™
Manager is also sponsoring the Search and Rescue (SAR) category in the 2014 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards gala on Sept. 27.  The finalist in that category – Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”) who lives in Cypress, Texas – has made significant contributions to the SAR community over her long career. As seen on a special broadcast of The TODAY Show  on Sept. 11, she is one of only two surviving search and rescue dogs who worked at Ground Zero following the 2001 terror attacks. Bretagne was also deployed during the Olympic Winter Games in 2001 and Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Since retiring in 2008, she spends her time working as an ambassador to the SAR community and visiting schools. Bretagne is among eight amazing dogs that will be honored at a star-studded awards gala on Sept. 27 in Beverly Hills, where the top American Hero Dog for 2014 will be chosen based on more than one million votes by the American public. Watch this video to learn more about her remarkable story at http://on.today.com/1yrzFhZ.

ABOUT THE RED STAR TEAM
American Humane Association is the country’s first national humane organization – and the only one devoted to protecting both children and animals. The organization’s Red Star rescue work began in 1916 when they were asked by War Department to help save hundreds of thousands of horses that were wounded on the battlefields of World War I in Europe.

Since then, Red Star has been involved in virtually every major relief effort, from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. During the past 10 years, Red Star has rescued, helped and sheltered more than 10,000 animals hurt in catastrophes and cruelty cases. To help, please visit www.americanhumane.org.