CONCORD, N.C. — It’s been about a month and a half since wildfires began ragging in California. Claiming lives, homes and businesses. Numerous organizations from our state, including the North Carolina Air National Guard, were launched to aid efforts, as well as Animal-Assisted Crisis Response Teams.

Kristen Batchelor has been involved with some form of animal-assisted therapy for approximately 25 years. 

“I have been in mental health interventions with animals, horses, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, rabbits, a little bit of everything over the years,” Batchelor, a canine handler, said. 

Besides being a therapist, the North Carolina resident has been with HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response, a volunteer international nonprofit for approximately 8 years. 

“Animals were always a place of calm and solace for me. And so, I wanted to give other people access to that experience,” Batchelor said. 

HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response has about 300 teams that deploy for free to respond to disasters such as man-made trauma, natural disasters, debriefs and more. With dogs receiving special training for crisis calls and require more stamina.  

Gru and a firefighter in one of the Concord Station No. 3 engines. (Dan Conklin/ Spectrum News 1)

Gru is Batchelor’s current partner. He is categorized as a working dog, in a similar category to a search and rescue police dog. 

“Gru has a natural ability to seek interactions with people that are needing connection,” Batchelor said. 

Gru, a chocolate lab, is Batchelor’s second dog with HOPE AACR and recently returned from California, after being there for responders helping aid the destruction process. 

“I think it’s easy to forget to help the helpers. I think there is obviously a culture where asking for help is not always seen as the strong action that it is,” Batchelor said. 

She and Gru have been a team for a few years, after his owner, who he worked for as a service animal for, passed away. Gru has been a crisis canine since 2024.

“He was in Altadena at a disaster recovery center. And then also in Malibu at an EPA staging area,” Batchelor said, who was deployed to California with three other teams. 

Batchelor has been sent to multiple disasters through HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response, including the Surfside building Collapse in Miami, Western North Carolina after Helene and Southern California from the wildfires. 

“It’s very different to see it on the news and then to be there on the ground and see the devastation and speak with people who have lost everything.” 

The duo also helps locally, like at the Concord Fire Station No. 3 where a co-worker in their dispatch center unexpectedly passed away. 

“It gives them a chance to interact, de-stress, debrief a little bit with the animal. The animals, non-judgmental, is just there to offer support,” Battalion Chief Robbie Boyd said. 

Kristen Batchelor and Gru (second from left) in California. (Kristen Batchelor)

Boyd said while he has had experience with therapy animals before, it is a new experience to have one come to the station, allowing the fire fighters to open up in their home away from home. 

“As firefighters and first responders, we are put in situations where we have high stress levels, where we are put in possibly traumatic positions, as well as life and death,” Boyd said. “You can get high stress levels, which also can lead to anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. Having a therapy dog is a way to have a noninvasive form of therapy.”

He said Gru and Batchelor not only give them an outlet to open up but also break down a barrier to speak up to each other.

“It’s very important you have support recognition from your administration as well as your leadership. The need for mental health outlets. We are very proactive in our physical health, but having our leadership and our administration recognize that our mental health is just as important is a big plus,” Boyd said. 

As he said, the more leaders help break down the stigma around mental health and first responders, the better they will be.

“If we can do that in a subtle way, by bringing in a dog and support these guys that I expect to show up at one in the morning when my fire alarm goes off, that just always feels like a debt that I can’t repay,” Batchelor said.