With her owner holding her leash, Philippine pooch Hazel sniffs through rubble in a simulated search for survivors of a major earthquake in Metro Manila.
Hazel is taking part in a program training pet dogs and their owners in search and rescue so they can be deployed in the aftermath of a disaster.
Every Sunday, about 46 mongrels and purebreds of all sizes are put through their paces by volunteer trainers at a facility in Metro Manila where they learn to find people, scale ladders and bound over wooden structures.
Photo: AFP
Philippine disaster agencies already have search-and-rescue dogs that are deployed when disasters strike the archipelago nation.
However, there are concerns that there might not be enough of them if a major earthquake were to hit the sprawling metropolis of Manila.
Hazel, who was a skinny street mutt before she was adopted by her owner, Nathalia Chua, lacks the pedigree of some of her classmates. However, she shows plenty of enthusiasm as she follows instructions to search rubble, overturned water drums and small wooden huts.
The three-year-old barks and wags her tail when she finds a person hiding in a drum, drawing cheers from trainers and back rubs from Chua.
“My end goal with Hazel is just to be as prepared as possible if the ‘big one’ comes,” 17-year-old Chua said, referring to a major earthquake seismologists predict could strike the city one day.
Manila is vulnerable to quakes due to its location on the West Valley Fault and its proximity to the Manila Trench off the main island of Luzon.
Seismologists believe the movement of either one could trigger a major earthquake in the city that could kill tens of thousands of people.
The MMDA K-9 Corps volunteer group has trained about 700 pet dogs since it began the program in 2016.
It aims to train at least 3,400 pet dogs in search and rescue across the city.
“We all know that for the ‘big one’... we really need to be prepared,” trainer Katrina Florece, 25, said at the training facility owned by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
Hazel was malnourished and fearful when Chua found her in 2021 during a family holiday on the western island of Palawan.
The search-and-rescue training has helped her become calmer and more confident.
“She loves it,” Chua said. “I think even if the dog doesn’t end up enjoying search and rescue, joining this is a great opportunity to learn and bond with your dog.”
Dogs have to complete at least 12 training sessions before they can be deployed in real-life disaster response operations.
US chef Jon Hrinyak, 40, regularly brings his German Shepherd Oly to the training in the hope that they might be able to save someone’s life one day.
“You hope that when something happens... we can be there to assist someone,” Hrinyak said.
“A single life that we can help is worth it,” he said.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
RSS