Rescued Dog Now Saves People

Last fall you may have read an article about Pearl, the rescued black lab who was adopted from an animal shelter and then trained to work on search and rescue missions: Abandoned Dog Helps Save 12 Lives. She worked in Haiti sniffing for people buried in the rubble, and helped save a number of human lives. For her work she was given the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Dog of the Year Award for 2010. A children’s book was written about Pearl’s work in Haiti to raise money for training new search dogs. The book is called A New Job for Pearl, and has illustrations made by second graders.

Now she is going to go to work in Japan doing the same kind of search and rescue mission in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. You can see updates of what Pearl is doing on the Search Dog Foundation’s Facebook page.

The Search Dog Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to train dogs for search and rescue missions. Rescued dogs are used in their program and paired with firefighters. This combination often works very well when seeking injured or buried people after disasters like earthquakes or floods. If you don’t want to buy the book or make a donation, simply liking their Facebook is a free way to support their important work.

Sadly, so many animals in shelters who need adopting don’t get new homes because many people prefer to buy animals with pedigrees or from pet stores. It’s important to support organizations that help find homes for sheltered animals.

Image Credit: A New Job for Pearl

Read more: Animal Rights, Conscious Consumer, Dogs, Pets, rescue dogs, shelter

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Julia R.

3:47PM PST on Feb 12, 2012

What a wonderful organization The Search Dog Foundation is! It uses rescued dogs from shelters to train for search and rescue rather than dogs from breeders! There are so many intelligent and wonderful dogs at shelters that given the chance can learn to do so many wonderful things! Thank you to The Search Dog Foundation for recognizing the worth of these shelter dogs! I'm going to donate to your wonderful organization and I hope many others will too!

send a green star

Elaine A.

2:47PM PST on Feb 12, 2012

Great story! Just don't work the dog to hard!

Glenville J O.

12:12PM PST on Feb 11, 2012

Aren't these animals great, also the people who work with them.

Michelle K.

11:37AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

Thanks!

Teresa W.

8:34AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

great story

Despina V.

6:17AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

Nice happy news for a change,keep up the good work

Teresa C.

2:55AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

I wish there were more of these programs--or related programs. Animals can do so much more than people give them credit for.
Thanks for an interesting article.

Virginia E.

2:48AM PST on Feb 11, 2012

good job pearl, you are awesome, i love doggies, that make a better world indeed.

Amanda G.

9:25AM PST on Feb 10, 2012

wonderful story. Thanks!

Erika M.

9:19AM PST on Feb 10, 2012

good news