Kansas City, Mo. ? While most rescue efforts after a large-scale disaster focus on humans, officials from several Kansas agencies want to extend the same kind of emergency help to animals.

The Kansas Animal Disaster Preparedness plan is designed to prepare a statewide network of agencies and volunteers who will fan out to rescue, feed and bury animals. The team will respond to natural disasters, bioterrorism and widespread animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth.

The plan was discussed at a meeting Wednesday at Kansas State University.

It’s based on a program started in North Carolina after Hurricane Floyd struck in 1999, killing millions of poultry, cattle, swine and pets.

More than 120 veterinarians and state officials met leaders of the North Carolina State Animal Response Team, which leads animal rescue efforts in that state.

While many of the details of Kansas’ plan are not final, it generally expands plans the state already has for dealing with foreign animal diseases, said Sheila Dodson, a veterinarian from Shawnee who serves on a steering committee developing the Kansas response.

“We are learning how to use other agencies and departments and pool our resources,” said Dodson, who also serves on the executive board of the Kansas Veterinary Medical Assn. “We need to be able to communicate well in any type of disaster involving animals.”

Kansas had a “very good system in place that just needed a little tweaking, particularly on coordination,” said Bill Gentry, an executive board member of the North Carolina team. “We want to make sure they understand that working collectively, instead of as individual agencies, provides a better response.”

The animal response teams let emergency management officials help humans, Gentry said, while setting up a parallel system for animals.

About 90 percent of the 2,500 members are volunteers who have been trained and certified for aspects of the response.

Dodson said the response teams would include those rescuing pets because up to 75 percent of people involved in disasters say they will risk their lives to protect their pets.