Lt. Col. / MOHAMED A . J Al-ANSARI
INSARAG Regional Chairman Africa / Europe / Middle East
U.A.E. FOCAL POINT
Head of the UAE USAR TEAM Section
THE GEN. DIRECTORATE FOR CENTRAL OPERATIONS
ABU DHABI POLICE GHQ
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

After a successful start of the “Day of Search & Rescue Dogs” in Austria in 2008 and great events in 2009, 2010 and 2011 the next

“Day of Search & Rescue Dogs” will take place on 29th of April 2012

as a worldwide event and from then on every last Sunday in April.

Purpose of the “International Day of Search & Rescue Dogs”:

The work of rescue-dogs and their voluntary working dog handlers should be presented to the public as well as to politicians and should therefore be honoured accordingly.

Procedure:

1. Each participating search & rescue dog team starts at 10 a.m. sharp with a public activity: This might be an “open day”, presentations of area-, scent- , rubble- avalanche- or water search. Mission readiness exercises, symposia and workshops are also welcome.
2. A big, central rescue dog presentation has to take place in the capital (or in any metropolis) of each country. Politicians (from municipal councils to head of governments), media representatives and off course the public should be invited.
3. Depending on the time zone, rescue dog presentations will start every hour around the world (always starting at 10:00 a.m.)
4. At 3 p.m. GTM all participating dog teams have to be ready for a symbolic deployment – no matter how late it is in the respective time zone. At the same time all over the world the greetings of the UNO secretary general (respectively of the highest ranking politician) will be read out.
5. With these two events (10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. GMT worldwide) we will show, that the voluntary working dog teams are ready to save lives in all weathers, at any hour of the night or the day around the world.

These events around the world will be documented on a special website that will be permanently updated with photos, videos and texts. Furthermore some teams will be online via webcams. This website of course will be specially promoted worldwide. The dates of all participating rescue dog teams and links to the organisations will be listed on this website as well as texts, greeting words and photos in the press corner.

We hope that all (!) rescue-dog organisations can be motivated to present their work to the public on this special day.

We are happy to announce, that the „International Rescue-Dog Organisation – IRO“ has overtaken the coordinating work for this second worldwide „Day of Search & Rescue-Dogs“.

In case of a disaster, official experts – no matter how well trained – just cannot meet the requirements of their jobs without any external help.
Experience shows that even if professional knowledge, appropriate equipment and sufficient number of stuff/personneare all available during the search of a missing person, if the assistance does not come in time, it will cost human lives.
The recourse to “man’s best friend” in case of search and rescue has been increasingly recognized recently. Dogs have the special ability of sniffing the victim from far and signaling to their handlers. Thanks to them, there is a greater Chance of finding a missing person in time, which is very important since the success of a rescue operation highly depends on speed.
In disasters the higher the number of available of available trained rescue dogs, the easier it becomes for the rescuers.
The Hungarian Directorate General for Disaster Management has been cooperating with NGO rescue dog associations for the sake of national and international deployments.
The success of the Central Rescue Organization of Budapest proves the high level of training of the Hungarian dog search and rescue organizations.
One of our search and rescue teams took part in a SAR operation after the devasting earthquake in Indonesia last year.
It is very important for me that I have the chance to greet the members of the IRO and the International Search and Rescue Organisation on the occasion of “Day of Search and Rescue Dogs”.
Hereby, I would like to congratulate them for investing a huge of amount of time and money in the training of their dogs, and they and their dogs – spare no pains – are always available to rescue human’s life.
Moreover, I would like to thank them for their noble job here in Hungary and abroad, and wish them vast of stamina and many successful deployments in the future.

Yours sincerely
Dr. Attila Tartár
Director General INSARAG

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SHS Freiburg Deutschland (2010)

So it is justifiable to bring these activities closest possible to the public through this event. The big variety of races of dogs in the rescue dog work is not comparable to any other kind of dog work, and this will be highlighted at this worldwide event. Independently of any organisational membership, we want to show the entire world on the “International Day of Search & Rescue Dogs” the special skills of our well trained dogs. I wish all of you participating at these activities, a successful day and active attention of the public.