Trained dogs offer sniff of a chance for quake survivors
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/19/content_8204774.htm
BEIJING, May 19 -- It was more than 72 hours after the quake and
no cry for help could be heard from the rubble of Beichuan Middle
School amid the din of heavy machinery around.
A rescue team from Chongqing was doing a last search on the
school's collapsed main building, giving up hope of any survivors -
when a sniffer dog barked.
Firefighters conduct rescue operation with search dogs at Mianzhu of
southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 18, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
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Rescuers started moving heavy concrete chunks at the spot and two
hours later, they found a girl in coma, her legs wounded badly, but
still breathing.
She was re****tedly the last survivor found in the school.
The efficacy and efficiency of sniffer dogs have become legion in
the quake-hit areas of Sichuan, where they are often seen as the last
line of hope.
More than 100 are working day and night, searching for signs of
lingering life from corners and crevices that are beyond the reach of
human senses.
"I've had my dog ever since he was a couple of months old but he's
never been in such surroundings - the smell of bodies, the aftershocks
and endless noise of power generators and hydraulic machines," said Qi
Zhigang, keeper of Si Dao, a 6-year-old black Labrador.
A Member of the Japanese rescue team search for buried people with the
help of a sniffer dog at a collapsed buidling in Qushan Town, seat of
the worst-hit Beichuan county, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May
18, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
Qi, a firefighter from Jiangsu, has been in Beichuan since last
Thursday with a team accompanied by eight sniffer dogs.
"Si Dao has been searching on and on, and when he detects
something he barks and scratches the rubble," Qi said. "He eats one
meal per day and has slept only a couple of hours since we got here.
He's really working hard."
Since Friday, Si Dao has managed to locate a few survivors but
most of those he sniffed out were dead, Qi added.
As time runs out for survivors, rescue workers are pinning their
hopes on dogs to guide men and machines to trapped people.
In Dujiangyan, a rescue team with seven dogs from Shandong
province has soldiered on for almost 80 straight hours since last
Tuesday and almost scoured the entire city.
Many dogs have suffered injuries on their mouths or paws by broken
glass, steel bars or nails in the debris. Typically, their keepers and
they have a couple of hours' nap a day in a tent and then get back to
work.
Silver Tiger, one of the seven sniffer dogs from Yunnan province,
even caught a cold last Friday after strenuous efforts - his keeper
fed him pills and believes he will recover soon.
Then, there is the mental stress. A dog from Zhejiang province
started sobbing when searching through a building in the city of
Mianzhu.
Rescuers then found two bodies underneath the debris the dog
pointed to.
"The dog has been taught to find people alive. He's never seen so
many dead and he must be very grief-stricken," the dog's keeper said.
There is no official count how many people have been saved by the
dogs but they certainly had a hand to play in most of the miracle
rescues.
In the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan, the rescue team from Shandong
sent two dogs to a collapsed factory building last Thursday after
hearing there might be survivors. In just five minutes, the dogs
pointed to four targets in the debris; and after four hours, rescuers
dug out one survivor and four bodies.
"Every dog we brought has performed well," said Tang Hu, head of a
fire brigade from Qingdao, Shandong province. His dogs have helped
find dozens trapped in debris in Dujiangyan, including a pregnant
woman and her mother under a collapsed 5-story building.
The dogs have become heroes in the city. Many residents are
refusing to clear debris unless a dog has confirmed there is nobody
left underneath. Some families have cut the rations of their pet dogs
to supply the professionals.
The canine efforts are certainly being recognized and appreciated.
The Ministry of Public Security ordered 100 pairs of special
sheaths to be sent to Sichuan to protect the dogs from further
injuries.
China Eastern Airlines ignored rules for two dogs from Jiangsu:
The rescue team did not carry cages for two dogs which should go into
the freight cabin; instead, they traveled the same way passengers do.
The dogs mainly came from three top bases: The Beijing Military
Command, the China Seismological Bureau and the fire department in the
northeastern city of Shenyang apart from fire departments around the
country.
There was in international flavor over the weekend as dogs from
Japan, Russia, Singa****e and South Korea landed together with their
handlers and specialist equipment.
Private organizations, too, are keen to contribute to the rescue
mission.
The Hangzhou Fire-fighting Sniffer Dogs Association - arguably the
only such private society in the country - sent a German shepherd and
a golden retriever just hours after the quake.
(Source: China Daily)
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