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Rescue dogs unpaid heroes
Team members must pick up tab for dogs' costs

Matthew Ramsey
The Province

September 12, 2005

With their powerful senses of smell, search dogs are a critical tool for rescuers trying to save the lives of people trapped beneath rubble.

The Vancouver firefighter who looks after search dogs Barkley and Cooper on the city's elite Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team says it's high time the dogs got the funding they deserve.

"Without canines, you have no team," said dog master Flynn Lamont. "I'm going to be the most popular guy around as soon as we have an earthquake."

Lamont and other dog masters have to pay for vet bills, kibble, training, even leashes for the five dogs on USAR.

The bills add up quickly. A healthy dog costs about $1,500 per year. If the dogs happen to get injured while sniffing for survivors or locating the dead, the cost goes up precipitously.

The USAR website notes that total funding for the team has reached about $900,000 since the team was formed in 1995.

The annual operating budget is picked up by the City of Vancouver. So far there hasn't been enough to pay for the dogs.

Earlier this month, the two golden retrievers travelled with USAR to New Orleans. Lamont said intense heat, contaminated water, combined with a concern about alligators, kept the dogs out of action in the flooded city. However, Barkley has helped in police cadaver searches in the past and last week assisted with a police hunt in Coquitlam.

Lamont has cared for and trained golden retriever Barkley, nine, since he was a seven-week-old pup. It's taken about 5,000 hours of work to teach Barkley how to be an expert in finding the living and dead. The dog has worked with USAR for seven years.

"He's a tool we can't duplicate and he's a tool that's not funded," Lamont said.

Lamont is also master to four-year-old search dog Cooper, Barkley's son. Other dogs on the team are Cody (Barkley's brother), Max and Jake.

Training means teaching the dogs to locate generic human scent. The animals eventually learn that all humans are friends. Finding a dead body means a treat from the dog master.

The rest is up to the dog's extremely sensitive snouts and their refined "prey and play drive," Lamont said.

"I just taught them to hunt for the things I want to hunt for -- that's humans," he said. "There really is no fame and fortune. The fame is the dog's fame and it's cost me a fortune to do it."

mramsey@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2005