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National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Snapshot
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The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation's mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by recruiting and rescuing dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find survivors in the wreckage of disasters.
Founded in 1996, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization based in Santa Paula, CA. SDF strengthens disaster response in America by producing highly skilled canine disaster search teams to search for missing persons and victims of natural and man made disasters. SDF is the oldest nonprofit organization in the U.S. that recruits rescued dogs, gives them ongoing professional training, and partners them with firefighters and other first responders nationwide. We offer this life saving resource at no cost to fire departments or task forces, providing emergency response personnel with a critically important asset they could not otherwise afford.
No technology can match a dog’s speed and accuracy in finding people trapped in the wreckage of a disaster, thanks to a remarkable sense of smell, the ability to ignore all other scents and noises when searching, and an unparalleled ability to quickly and safely navigate unstable and slippery terrain.
SDF has trained a total of 180 certified teams that have deployed to 214 disasters and missing person searches. There are currently 76 SDF-trained search teams located in California, Florida, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Baja California. Thanks to mutual aid agreements, these teams can be deployed wherever disasters occur.
No technology can match a dog’s speed and accuracy in finding people trapped in the wreckage of a disaster, thanks to a remarkable sense of smell, the ability to ignore all other scents and noises when searching, and an unparalleled ability to quickly and safely navigate unstable and slippery terrain.
SDF has trained a total of 180 certified teams that have deployed to 214 disasters and missing person searches. There are currently 76 SDF-trained search teams located in California, Florida, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Baja California. Thanks to mutual aid agreements, these teams can be deployed wherever disasters occur.
