Roger the Lab to the Rescue!
By Amy Fernandez
Photo by: Kaohsiung Fire Department via CNN Newsource
It wasn’t Groundhog Day when Taiwan was indeed hit with another earthquake recently. It wasn’t as bad as April 3rd quake. That day, of course, our own NY/NJ quake overshadowed news coverage of the real disaster on the other side of our shifting planet. Our local quake was minor, but for Taiwan, April 3rd was the worst in 25 years, registering 7.4–followed by hundreds of aftershocks. At last count serious injuries are over 1,000.
So, bring in the detection dogs. That has become the protocol for any urban disaster response, and in this case, one veteran yellow Lab, owned by the local fire department, earned his place in history.
Roger, being the senior member of a four dog team, has an interesting backstory, which definitely didn’t hint at any future celebrity status. His career didn’t begin auspiciously when he flunked out of his drug detection program due to his irrepressible personality. Roger was lively, energetic and way too easily distracted to focus on one boring thing all day long.
His human partner, Lee Hsin Hung, selected him from a pool of detection dog dropouts. Although the Kaoshiung Fire Department does plenty of rescue work and needs dogs, it does not get first pick. That worked out fine in this case. Roger had everything Lee was looking for in a detection dog. He was bold, curious and fearless–which just goes to show that every dog, like every person, has a unique personality. He wasn’t the average Lab, but he didn’t need to be. He loved to work and the usual search and rescue reward–a favorite toy–provided endless incentive. Roger loved showing off. If it meant climbing a smoldering pile of rubble, so what.
That was the start of a long, successful partnership for Roger and Mr. Lee. Along the way, they also became the designated go-to team to do local media events. By 2024, Roger had done more than enough. He was nine, and it was time to retire. Then the quake demanded all hands on deck, and once again Roger was all in.
Earthquake planning has been built into Taiwan civic planning for decades, which accounts for just 13 fatalities among an island of a million residents. Roger has spent his career searching for and finding live victims, never having been trained as a cadaver dog. That day he was searching the grounds of a national state park where many of the missing had been trapped under rockslides. Scrambling up a heap of rubble he alerted his handler. Unfortunately, it was not another survivor. It was a 21-year-old woman who had picked the wrong day for hiking.
Roger is really going to retire now; as soon as he finishes this latest round of media requests.
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=286764
Posted by Liz
on May 7 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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