A man who has been working to save animals from the Summerland, B.C., wildfire evacuation zone has now been told he can no longer continue his work due to breaking the rules.
Animal rescuer Kazimir Nowlin has been working since Friday to get animals and livestock to safety and away from the danger of the massive Bald Range fire.
“I was fixing a stable in Falkland to get a stallion that we had rescued off the reserve there, we’d finished that up, and then we heard about the Summerland fire starting up, so we just jumped in our vehicles,” he said about Friday evening when the Bald Range wildfire sparked.
“As soon as we got here, we had four horses evacuated right where the fire was. We brought them out to Oliver, jumped back in, we grabbed three or four more horses, grabbed them, took them up to OK Falls, I believe.”
Carolyn Dobler, a rancher from Stonewall Ranch, said Nowlin and his team rescued all of his animals.
“I finally got everybody here in one place last night, and went home and had a good cry and was so grateful,” she told Global News.
Nowlin said they continued to rescue animals where they were needed, but then they were told they needed permits to go into the evacuated areas.
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He said he was told to join up with the Animal Lifeline Emergency Response Team (ALERT), who help rescue and evacuate animals and livestock during disasters.
However, he said he was told on Tuesday night that he could no longer work with ALERT as he was violating their rules of filming the animals and homes inside evacuation zones and posting the content on social media.
“Where is the counselling? Where is the support? Where is all of that?” Daryl Meyers with ALERT said.
“If someone is sitting at home and sees it on social media, and they have a complete and utter breakdown, meltdown.”
The president of the regional ALERT said that is why protocols are in place and Nowlin broke the rules by going into so-called Red Zones and recording video.
“He went rogue on us,” Meyers said.
“We had a complaint from the RCMP, and the RCMP asked us to have him stand down
“If we break the rules, we’ll get kicked out, and the last thing people need is for us to get kicked out.”
Nowlin said he is now moving on.
“It was disheartening because, I mean, we were doing what needed to be done, which they refuse to do,” he said.
“The leadership here — and I want to express, I am not against ALERT; I fully respect and love what they do — the leadership here is not any good. The leadership here is refusing to take horses that we can take out and put into a sanctuary that’s all set up for them, but she’s telling people that we’re not prepared to do that, and that is absolute crap.”
Nowlin said he applied for his own permit on Saturday, but he has not yet received a call.
He said there is too much red tape.
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