Taiwan's search and rescue dogs praised amid earthquake response

台灣搜救犬在地震救援中受到表揚

Dogs from Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Hualien fire departments indispensable in search and rescue operations


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Amid reporting on the search and rescue efforts following the 7.2 earthquake that struck Taiwan on April 3, several four-legged heroes have drawn the public’s praise for helping to find missing persons.

In Taroko National Park, rescue dogs made headlines in the days following the quake. Several dogs received praise for quickly locating the bodies of victims who died due to a rockfall on Shakadang Trail.

On Friday (April 5), the Hualien Fire Department’s Search and Rescue Team entered the area with a team of three dogs: Wilson, Hero, and Fancy. The smallest of the dogs, a Jack-Russell named Wilson, located the bodies of two victims, both members of a five-person family who were hiking the trail that morning, reported UDN.

Wilson passed his International Search and Rescue Certification exam in December, and then joined the Hualien Fire Department’s special rescue patrol. His handler, Ceng Ching-lin (曾景麟), said that Wilson was indispensable to the team and displayed a tacit understanding of his responsibilities.

As search operations continued on Saturday (April 6), the Kaohsiung Fire Department’s Special Search and Rescue team took over, with their veteran rescue dog, Roger, an 8-year-old Labrador leading the way. Within five minutes of reaching the top of the rubble pile where Wilson had found two people, Roger quickly located a boulder and wagged his tail to indicate he had found a victim.

Roger was originally trained as a drug detection dog, but his trainers felt that his lively nature made him better suited for search and rescue. His first major rescue experience was assisting at the site of the Yun Men Tsui Ti residential building that collapsed in 2018 following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, reported CNA.

On the day the 7.2 earthquake struck, Roger’s colleague on the Kaohsiung Fire Department, a Labrador named Mina, assisted in locating people and guiding them from the partially collapsed Uranus Building in Hualien, reported CNA. When the Search and Rescue Team arrived on the scene, Mina did not hesitate to rush into the building through glass and rocks to search out those needing assistance.

The Pingtung Search and Rescue Team also dispatched a veteran Labrador, Mona, to assist in clearing buildings in the Hualien area. Mona was responsible for rescuing a small child from a collapsed building in Hualien on April 3, per CNA.