Santa Barbara County Animal Services launches livestock registry to help with wildfire evacuations

Cattle, horses, pigs, llamas, and ostriches were listed during a recent town hall in Solvang dedicated to wildfire preparation and evacuation protocols across the Santa Ynez Valley.

Sarah Aguilar, Santa Barbara County Animal Services director, was among the March 31 panel’s featured speakers, alongside 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, county fire officials, and elected officials from Solvang and Buellton. While many speakers discussed the possibility of forming a valley-wide wildfire protection plan in the future, Aguilar said that residents can immediately take one step toward strengthening current wildfire protection efforts by using Animal Services’ first livestock registry, which the county launched on April 1.

“Preparedness for large animals in fires is not just about saving the animals’ lives, but it also has an impact on humans as well and potential for human tragedy,” Aguilar said. “Time that is spent trying to rescue unplanned-for animals during disaster is time that could be spent saving humans or households [or] buildings.”

Residents can use the livestock registry to provide the county with info about what kinds of animals and how many animals they own partly to help smooth out evacuation or rescue efforts during a future emergency. The registry includes a preferred evacuation plan column, in which users can list themselves as able to self-evacuate or in need of evacuation assistance.

“If we have information where we know there’s animals on your property—maybe you’re at work, [or] maybe you need assistance—we can contact you directly and say, ‘Do you have a plan? Do you need help? We know you have 12 horses or 14 llamas or whatever you have,’” Aguilar said. “We want to get them out ahead of fires, we don’t want to be clogging up roadways for fire trucks and other first responders to get in.”

Another good way for ranchers and other animal owners to prepare for wildfire emergencies is to practice an evacuation plan after the sun goes down, Aguilar said.

“If you have a large animal, go out at night and load it into a trailer and figure out how you’re going to get out. Most of the time, your animals are used to loading maybe during the day when everything’s peaceful and quiet. [But] disaster occurs at any time,” Aguilar said. “If you can safely load and get out of your property at night, in the dark, your chances of getting out in the daylight are much greater and you’ll have some understanding of what it may be like under very smoky or hazy conditions; wet conditions; what lights you might need; access challenges, etc.”

Buellton Mayor David Silva said it’s easy to overlook the importance of getting the seemingly minute details right ahead of a natural disaster, wildfire-related or not, especially when relying on cellphones and other technology—pointing to cases where telecommunications and internet fail during an emergency. Aguilar proposed that the county also send out a mailer to inform residents about the livestock registry with an option to register their info by mail instead.

“We are often dealing with emergencies that are also on a much smaller scale that can be very cumbersome without us having the proper knowledge,” Silva told meeting attendees. “What happens, though, is we assume the resources will be made available by our own kind of dependency upon technology. … You being here today is so important for us because those things are not guaranteed during emergency preparedness.”

“By coming here tonight, it’s really a testament to your willingness to be engaged and informed,” Silva continued, “but also to help get this information out.”

This article appears in Apr 3-13, 2025.