The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has decided to start using dogs in shelters as part of their rescue teams. After natural disasters such as the Haiti and Japan earthquakes, tornadoes in Missouri, and attacks such as 9/11 the NDSDF feels that more dogs can help save more lives. Once the dogs living in shelters are trained they will be “on-call” so to speak in case disaster strikes. Read more after the jump.

@Julie1205

During the critical immediate hours following September 11, the Haiti earthquakes and the tornado in Joplin, MO, rescue workers knew they had limited time and resources to rummage through the rubble to find survivors. Which is why when disaster strikes, rescue workers call on the trained pooches from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, CNN reports.

Funded solely by grants, donations, awards and corporate support, the organization has been creating and training teams of dogs and handlers certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency since 1996.

When she arrived to the Oklahoma City bombing site, Wilma Melville thought to herself, “Can we really do this?” she told the news network. “Can we really find live people?”

In addition to saving human lives, the organization also saves at-risk dogs. Ninety percent of the dogs that the organization trains come from shelters.

“Finding live people is our goal,” Melville told CNN. “But, providing hope for the onlookers and a place for the firefighters to start, those are meaningful, meaningful objectives.”
HP