Published: April 12, 2008 11:34 pm            

Humane Society 04-13-08

Some could argue that the bravest dogs in America today are those canines that are involved in disaster search and rescue. Dogs played a major role in the search and rescue efforts at the Oklahoma City bombing as well as the various search efforts created by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and the Pentagon.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began an urban search and rescue program in 1989 which was designed to provide assistance to local agencies in the event of a catastrophic disaster. There are 28 urban search and rescue task forces located across the country. Each task force includes four canine search teams.

There are two levels of FEMA certification for search and rescue canine and handler teams. The basic certification requires the search dog to perform to specific standards under the direction of a handler. This includes bark alert, direction control, obedience, obstacle course and search and find.

The advance FEMA certification requires similar standards to the basic level but for those to be achieved outside the direct supervision and guidance of the handler.

The team must be recertified at least every two years to participate in search and rescue operations. The FEMA certification is the national standard which means that the canine/handler search team is capable of going anywhere in the nations and performing at the highest level.

Twenty-one urban search and rescue program teams worked at the World Trade Center site and five teams worked at the Pentagon site. The teams worked for approximately one month. New Jersey Task Force One arrived at the World Trade Center site within hours of the disaster. The canine teams rotated on 12-hour shifts and were assigned to designated areas at the site. They worked without leashes or collars to scale the huge mountains of debris, searching for survivors. They also worked barefoot because they are trained to use their feet and toes for traction. Safety workers and firefighters accompanied each working team to rescue any survivors found by the dogs.

After each 12-hour shift, the dogs were taken to a veterinary care tent. Each dog was decontaminated with a bath after every shift. Their eyes and ears were also flushed. No FEMA certified dog was seriously injured during its tour of duty of the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Search and rescue dogs are trained in two disciplines: Live find, where the rescue of a live victim is the goal and, cadaver, where the dog is trained to identify human remains. Some search and rescue dogs are cross trained for both live and cadaver. For a complete look at the search and rescue dogs that worked at both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, see “Dog Heroes of Sept. 11” by Nona Killgore Bauer published by Kennel Club Books.

Humane Society of Stillwater is at 1710 S. Main and the hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 2-6 p.m., Thursday from 2-7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

        

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