MARTINEZ (KRON)— The Contra Costa County Animal Services hosted a group of U.S. Army Reserves training members of the veterinary services wing on how to treat injured animals in the field on Thursday.

KRON4’s Philippe Djegal was at the animal shelter in Martinez.

The county and U.S. Army have been teaming together to treat injured animals here at home and abroad.

Thursday’s session lasted about eight hours and what the reserves learned there will travel with them around the world.

There are a lot of tough men and women in a photo obtained by KRON4 News.

The U.S. Army Reserves 109th medical services detachment in the bay area from Orange County.

In the field, the veterinary services arm of the Reserves is exposed to all sorts of tragic situations.

But as hardened as they are, they have a soft spot for pets.

“You just hand them a puppy or a kitten or an animal in need and they just melt around it and its just phenomenal to see,” said Beth Ward, director of the Contra Costa County Animal Services.

Ward says the Reserves’ commander reached out setting the session up.

It was a chance for the group to work in the spay and neuter center performing surgeries on stray injured animals ahead of the next major disaster.

“We saw in things like Katrina people didn’t want to leave the disaster areas because of their animals, so our reservists are out there,” Ward said. “They might need to respond to the animals, to rescue a dog off of the roof, they need to know how to properly restrain it and keep themselves safe as well as the animals safe.”

The reservists worked with both cats and dogs learning how to triage the animals treating broken legs, removing casts and splinting as well as basic medical evaluations and vaccinations.

“So they could be the best practitioners, um, possible in the field, whether it’s in a combat field or one of their many humanitarian efforts that they do,” Ward said.

By all accounts, Thursday’s training session went very well.

The reservists are resting up before returning Friday for a final day of training.