[MANILA] Despite the wonders of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI), when disaster strikes, our canine friends could be the best tool at our disposal.
A volunteer organisation in the Philippines is training dogs and their owners for disaster preparedness as the threat of devastating disasters looms over the country.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. This year’s World Risk Index, for the third straight year, ranks the Philippines as having the highest global risk to extreme natural events and negative impacts from climate change. It is followed by Indonesia, India, Columbia and Mexico.
Metro Manila, one of the most densely populated and highly urbanised places in the world, lies on the active West Valley Fault, which has historically generated destructive earthquakes every 400-600 years. The last quake was in 1658 – 366 years ago.
To prepare communities for disasters, the non-profit UPMV K9 Corps, a collaboration between the University of the Philippines (UP) Vanguard and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), offers free search and rescue training to volunteers and their pets.
In a three-week long festival (15 September to 6 October) they will encourage more pet owners to join the programme and volunteer as trainers, as they seek to expand to other parts of the country. To date, UPMV has trained around 800 canine-handler teams.
“Most households have dogs now, so why don’t we use the natural potential of those dogs for search and rescue training?” said UPMV president Elah Tendero.
Daniela Rupp of the International Search and Rescue Dog Organisation (IRO) who is not involved in the project, said: “There are situations where technical equipment is not enough to search for victims and there’s nothing else that can beat the dog’s nose.”
According to Rupp, “one canine can search a woodland area the size of three football pitches within 15 minutes, which would otherwise require around 50 helpers”.
The programme, which consists of 20 sessions, trains both the handler and the dog as a team. It focuses on obedience, stability, communication and search and rescue skills. The handlers also learn basic first aid.
“We teach the handlers how they can train their pets,” said Tendero. “The main objective is to empower the normal citizen to be self-sufficient during disaster.”
Timothy James Dimacali, a science journalist who took part in the programme last year, says it has helped him communicate with his dog better.
“The programme is an appreciation of what we and our dogs are capable of,” he said. “It helped me learn to be more calm in situations where I otherwise would be frantic.”
Dimacali said training alongside his dog also improved his own fitness. “Together with my dog, I am now fit enough to hopefully help with my family and local community when something happens,” he added.
Deployment in disasters
Graduates of the programme are trained to become immediate respondents to their families and local community. A few continue with more intensive training to prepare for deployment in disaster situations.
Haruka Ezaki, humanitarian affairs officer of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group, Asia and Pacific region, thinks it’s an excellent idea. “It offers the community a sense of ownership and partnership with their beloved pets, making a value-added contribution in times of disasters.”
Alexander Hönel, IRO deputy spokesperson for deployment, said that volunteers who want to be deployed as emergency respondents need to go through more rigorous training. “The most important thing is that they are well trained and that the official organisations like civil service police and the fire brigade can 100 per cent rely on them.”
“If you are not embedded in an official organisation or even in an urban search and rescue team, then you easily become a burden to these organisations,” added Hönel.
Currently, the Philippine Coast Guard K9 Force has 414 working dogs and 266 active K9 handlers to serve over 7,000 islands and almost 110 million people.
In 1990, when North Luzon experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed over 1,600 people, the US sent rescue teams with dogs and equipment to help with the search-and-rescue operations.
Tendero hopes the Philippines will have enough teams of its own when the next disaster strikes. “The goal is to have each community or municipality have their own search and rescue teams,” she said.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.