Expansion of search dog service ‘could save lives’
The K9 voluntary service in Cork is the only back-up to the garda dog unit, which has 19 dogs at its bases at Kilmainham Garda Station in Dublin. Handlers are also based in Limerick and Cork.
Now K9’s Mick McCarthy is urging dog owners who would be interested in getting involved in the service to contact its Midleton base in Cork and start training their pets.
The gardaí are doing a great job searching for people, he says, as are the other rescue groups. But more dogs would be a huge boost to the service.
Specially trained dogs could be used before large-scale searches begin and hundreds of people trek across lands and ruin the scent left by those who’ve gone missing, he said.
Mr McCarthy said finding 91-year-old Joe Walsh alive in a field of corn in Tipperary on Wednesday showed just how vital the service was.
Their seven-year-old dog, Holly, recovered Mr Walsh just 10 minutes after she was brought into the area. The widower and father of four had been missing for six days and was seriously sunburnt and dehydrated.
“We’re using his recovery as a means of getting people involved in this service and training search dogs. There’s no reason why every town in the country shouldn’t have such a service. Training a dog to be a search dog takes the same amount of time each day as it does to walk them.
“It’s part of the legal system in other countries that such service is available locally. Yet we only have a few dogs, as well as the highly-trained garda dog unit service. Any dog that hunts is capable of being trained to be a search dog,” Mr McCarthy said.
Gardaí have welcomed the move. “Absolutely anything which would help us find missing persons as quickly as possible has to be welcomed,” a garda spokesman said.
K9 is a voluntary organisation. Donations can be made to the AIB Bank, Bridge Street, Cork. Account number 02721071.
