Sometimes, dogs, cats and other pets need life-saving attention. Now, seven Slate Belt departments that handle emergency response will be in a better position to aid our furry friends.

The Slate Belt Animal Advocacy Group recently presented the departments with animal-sized recovery oxygen masks.

The advocacy group received the free masks from Resus-a-Pet, a nonprofit organization started last year by Bucks County 12-year-old Emily Rilling.

The kits come with three attachments that fit over the mouths and noses of cats, large dogs and small dogs.

Kits were given to Portland Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, East Bangor Fire Department, North Bangor Fire Co. in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Columbia Fire Co. in Roseto, and Second Ward Fire Co. and Blue Valley Rescue Squad, which are in Bangor.

The group will be providing a kit to the Bangor Borough Police Department within a week.

Advocacy group president Christine Mammi said animals that may be panic-stricken, rescued from burning buildings or in vehicles during car accidents will benefit from the kits, which can efficiently provide life-saving oxygen that human-sized masks cannot.

“I’d say 90% of these first responders did not have animal-sized masks. Some had older versions,” Mammi said. “The kits we gave them are designed for the face of an animal.”

Mammi said she had been discussing the issue of animal rescue with her husband Raymond Mammi, who volunteers with the Second Ward Fire Co., and fellow advocacy group member Kerri Miller.

Miller said she found Resus-a-Pet online and contacted them about getting the masks.

Emily Rilling’s mother Colleen Rilling said her daughter was thinking of ways to help animals last year when she found that many local fire companies did not have pet resuscitation gear.

“Emily made it her goal to get a mask to every fire company in Bucks County,” Colleen Rilling said.

Her daughter set up the charity, raised money and achieved her goal of providing a kit to every department in Bucks County that did not already have a pet oxygen mask, she said.

Since then, people from other parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been asking for kits.

“We were happy to help when the Slate Belt Animal Advocacy Group called,” she said.

The organization buys bulk supplies and put the kits together to be shipped out. So far, Resus-a-Pet has supplied 300 kits to about 200 departments, according to Rilling.

John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com.