CANADIAN AVALANCHE RESCUE DOG ASSOCIATION

The Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) is the civilian organization entrusted with the responsibility of using dog teams for avalanche search and rescue. Founded in 1978, CARDA is a non-profit charitable organization. Each team, dog and handler, is highly trained, skilled and dedicated to achieve our mission of Saving Lives.

Inherent to Canada’s majestic geography, avalanches affect all Canadians either directly or indirectly. The roads and railways through mountain regions support our national economy while our friends and family enjoy the recreational opportunities. Because avalanches are an imminent hazard, CARDA members maintain a constant readiness to respond when needed, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE

Founded in 1975, Canine Companions for Independence® is a non-profit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships.

The assistance dogs we breed, raise and train aren’t just the ears, hands and legs of their human partners. They’re also goodwill ambassadors and often, their best friends. They open up new opportunities and new possibilities, and spread incredible joy. We unite people with dogs in a powerful program that leads to greater independence and confidence.

LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY

The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy works as a model and catalyst for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat. It does this through the protection and management of species, the initiation and support of community conservation and development programmes, and the education of neighbouring areas in the value of wildlife. For local communities, Lewa represents much more than the wildlife it protects.

To the people who neighbour the Conservancy, Lewa provides the chance to maintain their traditional way of life in a modern and sustainable context through progressive grazing and forestry initiatives. To families living on its boundaries, Lewa offers improved livelihoods with its adult education and women’s micro-credit programmes, community-managed water projects, and access to health care at its four health clinics. To thousands of children in local schools, Lewa opens doors to a future with more choices than the generations before them.

PENN VET WORKING DOG CENTER

Opened on September 11, 2012, the Penn Vet Working Dog Center serves as a national research and development center for detection dogs. With the United States national security under constant threat from attacks, detection dogs are still the best tool that we have to detect and mitigate potential threats. Search dogs are also critical for locating victims of natural and man-made disasters.

The special scenting ability of dogs also allows them to serve in important ways such as medical or conservation detection. As pioneers in the working dog field, our goal is to increase collaborative research and the application of the newest scientific findings and veterinary expertise to optimize the performance of lifesaving detection dogs.

Arizona Search Dogs

Arizona Search Dogs is a nonprofit (501c3) organization that trains, certifies, and developes Canine Search Specialist teams to be mobilized with USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) Task Forces and to assist state and local jurisdictions in urban and wilderness search and rescue acitivites.

Our teams have been deployed to the World Trade Center, The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, flooding in Houston, Texas, Dallas Fort Worth tornado, New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike in the Gulf Coast, and local searches for Valley residents.  Arizona search dogs is also a Valley of the Sun Untied Way supported agency #1761.

Dogs PLAYING FOR LIFE

Animal welfare as an industry is constantly evolving. Our critical tasks at hand changes from year to year. Organizations, their volunteers and animals are clearly benefiting from the newest trends, as is demonstrated by an overall reduction of euthanasia rates and less discriminatory practices. In the end, this is our primary role as humane societies; to provide care and a safe haven for all companion animals no matter their shape, size or color) and support them into loving homes.

Implementing daily play groups has proven to be a win-­‐win for people and animals! And to think that these exciting life saving outcomes revolve around something so simple and natural; let dogs be dogs and allow them to play together.

FLORIDA TASK FORCE 1

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue Response System (US&R) consists of 28 advanced search and rescue task forces strategically located at points nationwide. Managed by local emergency management agencies and/or fire departments, the teams are prepared to respond to catastrophic events outside of Miami involving the collapse of heavy steel and concrete.

In Florida, the US&R team is known as FL-TF 1. The task force includes approximately 210 members. The impetus for forming an advanced search and rescue team for major structural collapses came in the late 1980s after a series of severe earthquakes in California, Mexico, and other locations throughout the world. While the majority of fire departments are capable of performing rescues in light- to medium-sized construction collapses, US&R members have the tools, equipment, skills, and techniques required for the most dangerous of conditions. FEMA requires each task force to be ready within six hours notice for dispatch to any area of the country. Once activated, the teams must be able to sustain themselves for 72 hours without the assistance of local jurisdictions.

N.Y.P.D. Canine Unit

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is the largest and one of the oldest municipal police departments in the United States, with approximately 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees. The NYPD was established in 1845, and today, is responsible for policing an 8.5-million-person city, by performing a wide variety of public safety, law enforcement, traffic management, counterterror, and emergency response roles. In the past 25 years, the department has achieved spectacular declines in both violent and property crime, ensuring that New York City has the lowest overall rate of major crimes in the 25 largest cities in the country.

SEARCH DOG FOUNDATION

Founded in 1996, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Santa Paula, California. Our mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by rescuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters.

We offer the professionally trained canines and an ongoing training program at no cost to fire departments. And we ensure lifetime care for every dog in our program: once rescued, these dogs never need to be rescued again. There are currently 69 SDF-trained Search Teams located in Baja California, California, Florida, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Thanks to Mutual Aid Agreements between counties, cities and states, these precious, life-saving resources can be shared regionally and nationally to make sure that when disaster strikes, no one is left behind.