Search and Rescue Dogs Malaysia, a dedicated team of 10 active volunteers, specialises in deploying trained dogs for life-saving missions during disasters and emergencies.
The team is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, an annual award by The Star that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
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The team is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, an annual award by The Star that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Wellington Ho and I'm the Deputy President of Search and Rescue Dogs Malaysia
00:07and we are a winner of STAR Golden Hearts Award 2024.
00:14When the Highland Tower's tragedy struck more than 20 years ago, Wellington Ho felt
00:32a need to contribute towards aiding operations.
00:35Serving as the Malaysian Kennel Association President at the time, Ho called up an emergency
00:39number that flashed across the television screen, offering to help with search and rescue
00:44dogs, a need he recognised would be vital in such situations.
00:49Being in the position I held, I was in regular contact with other dog associations, other
00:57parts of the world who have search and rescue dogs.
01:02So I offered to be an intermediate, but I think she couldn't understand where I was
01:07coming from because at that time in Malaysia, search and rescue dogs hardly heard her.
01:14Motivated by this tragedy which claimed 48 lives, Ho made it his mission to establish
01:19a dedicated search and rescue dog team, leading to the formation of Search and Rescue SAR
01:26Dogs Malaysia in 2016.
01:28Today, the team includes two International Rescue Organization certified dogs, Tar, a
01:34black Labrador, and Atom, a mixed breed, along with four younger dogs currently in training.
01:40Ho said training takes about three years.
01:43The dogs will be certified by IRO once they have completed their training.
01:48One of Ho's challenges has been finding the right handlers and dogs, noting that the critical
01:53bond between them can be nurtured through training.
01:57There must be chemistry between the handler and the dog because when the dogs go to search,
02:04they are off-leash and they very much work on their own.
02:09But at the same time, the handler has to have a certain amount of control over the dog.
02:16So that bond between handler and dog is very important.
02:21The team, composed of 10 active volunteers, trains twice a week, with sessions on Sundays
02:26held in forests or rubble-like areas to simulate real-life rescue conditions.
02:31There, Thursday nights, we train on obedience and on dexterity.
02:38Because although our dogs are like free spirits when they work, but they also need to be obedient.
02:47So that's what we do on Thursday night.
02:50Obedience training and dexterity training is like when we teach them to go through tunnels,
02:56climb ladders, walk over unstable surfaces, subject to all kinds of noises,
03:06walking across a moving swing, and stuff like that.
03:17In these exercises, dogs are trained to detect general human scents independently,
03:21barking to alert handlers upon finding someone.
03:24It is believed that in the beginning, the dog would scan everyone within sight,
03:32place it in its computer in there and say,
03:36alright, I'm looking for generic scent, but these four I will ignore.
03:42And I will look for generic scent of someone who I don't see now.
03:49That's part of the training.
03:50To learn what the generic scent is, and to look for the generic scent,
03:56and to block off their mind to the scent of food that might be around,
04:03to block off from their mind the scent of other dogs.
04:07There will be other search dogs.
04:09Ignore, ignore all that and work and find the person.
04:14SAR Dogs, Malaysia, collaborates closely with the Civil Defence Force, APM,
04:19and team members serve as APM volunteers, donning official uniforms during operations.
04:24Among their notable missions was the search for Nora Ann Cuorin in 2019,
04:29where tragically, the 15-year-old's body was found after a 10-day search.
04:34So we were summoned in, and we were one of the teams that went in.
04:40Two of our dogs took part in that search, and we were there for two days and one night.
04:46But again, it was unfortunate, in the end, when Nora Ann was found,
04:51she was already dead, just too long in the wilderness.
04:57Another recent mission was during the 2022 Batangkali landslide,
05:01where 92 victims were involved, with 61 rescued and 31 fatalities.
05:06One of our dogs took part, and we were there for the beginning, first day,
05:14but after that, we pulled out, because our dogs are trained to search and rescue live persons.
05:22And by the second day, I think it was obvious that whoever was there would not be alive,
05:28so we pulled out after that.
05:31Reflecting on their work, Ho admits that finding a victim who has already passed
05:35is a particularly painful experience.
05:38In a way, we sort of prepared ourselves, but I think what I cannot forget is
05:47when the victim is found, and it's not found alive.
05:52So that part is something, thinking back, hard to, hard, yeah.
06:02The team remains committed even though they have not been getting much of the spotlight.
06:08For their noble efforts, SAR Dogs, Malaysia is named as one of the 10 winners
06:13of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, SGHA.
06:18Congratulations to the Star Golden Hearts Award 2024, all the best.