Disaster-prone Philippines trains pet dogs for search and rescue

Source: The Straits Times

MANILA - With her owner holding her leash, Philippine pooch Hazel sniffs through rubble in a simulated search for survivors of a major earthquake in the capital Manila.

Hazel is taking part in a programme training pet dogs and their owners in search and rescue, so they can be deployed in the aftermath of a disaster.

Every Sunday, around 46 mongrels and purebreds of all sizes are put through their paces by volunteer trainers at a facility in Manila where they learn to find people, scale ladders, and bound over wooden structures.

Philippine disaster agencies already have search-and-rescue dogs that are deployed when disasters strike.

But 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, Ms Nathalia Chua, lacks the pedigree of some of her classmates.

But 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," Ms Chua, 17, said, referring to a major earthquake seismologists predict could strike the city one day.