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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
RSS