Hero Dogs
How a Pack of Rescues, Rejects, and Strays Became America's Greatest Disaster-Search Partners
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Lola was a buckshot-riddled stray, lost on a Memphis highway. Cody was rejected from seven different homes. Ace had been sprayed with mace and left for dead on a train track. They were deemed unadoptable. Untrainable. Unsalvageable. These would become the same dogs America relied on when its worst disasters hit.
In 1995, Wilma Melville volunteered as a canine search-and-rescue (SAR) handler with her Black Labrador Murphy in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. At the time, there were only fifteen FEMA certified SAR dogs in the United States. Believing in the value of these remarkable animals to help save lives, Wilma knew many more were needed in the event of future major disasters. She made a vow to help 168 dogs receive search-and-rescue training in her lifetime—one for every Oklahoma City victim.
Wilma singlehandedly established the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) to meet this challenge. The first canine candidates—Ana, Dusty, and Harley—were a trio of golden retrievers with behavioral problems so severe the dogs were considered irredeemable and unadoptable. But with patience, discipline, and love applied during training, they proved to have the ability, agility, and stamina to graduate as SARs. Paired with a trio of firefighters, they were among the first responders searching the ruins of the World Trade Center following 9/11—setting the standard for the more than 168 of the SDF’s search-and-rescue dogs that followed.
Beautiful and heart-wrenching, Hero Dogs is the story of one woman’s dream brought to fruition by dedicated volunteers and firefighters—and the bonds they forged with the incredible rescued-turned-rescuer dogs to create one of America’s most vital resources in disaster response.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Melville, a canine search-and-rescue handler who was inspired to launch the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) after volunteering to help look for Oklahoma City bombing survivors in 1995, shares the struggles of establishing and maintaining the organization. She details the rigorous work that goes into preparing the dogs and their handlers, emphasizing her good fortune in meeting with Pluis Davern, the SDF's gifted trainer. Melville doesn't pull any punches, sharing tales of needless infighting among competing search-and-rescue organizations (dog trainers tend to be type-A, since "they're used to being obeyed"), as well as within her own group. The organization made great strides in terms of producing highly trained animals, but struggled to attract support until 9/11 showed the necessity of its work. Melville skillfully recounts how the dogs assisted with the nail-biting search for survivors in lower Manhattan's vast wreckage. That experience, for both animals and handlers, became crucial when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and then when an earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010. It makes for a harrowing, often heartbreaking, yet inspirational tale as Melville eloquently explores the small victories and wrenching losses of the dogs' much-needed work.
