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.
Comments