Seven search-and-rescue dogs in Taiwan are UN-certified, the National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue Team said yesterday as it took part in an annual drill held to mark National Disaster Prevention Day.
Taiwan has about 30 search-and-rescue dogs, spread across eight units, dog handler Chou Tsung-chi (周聰吉) said.
Of nine UN-certified search-and-rescue dogs in Asia, seven are in Taiwan and two are in Japan, he said, adding that it means they can be sent on humanitarian missions by the UN.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
As the seven dogs have only recently been certified, they have not yet taken part in international rescue missions, Chou said.
Taiwan began training search-and-rescue dogs after the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, when dogs from abroad joined the rescue efforts and helped locate many people, Chou said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) observed the drill and held one of the certified dogs on the team — a six-year-old Jack Russell terrier nicknamed Le Le (樂樂) — in her arms for a group photograph.
Le Le is responsible for performing search-and-rescue work in tight spaces, Chou said.
When buildings collapse during earthquakes, rescues rely on small dogs like Le Le that can enter through tiny gaps in buildings to search for survivors and victims, he said.
Le Le is the first Jack Russell to be trained into a search-and-rescue dog in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it has also trained labrador retrievers, among other breeds.
Tsai told attendants that she would task the Executive Yuan with mapping the areas of disaster prevention that could be more precise and faster.
When faced with earthquakes, storms or floods, national agencies and local governments must apply the same standard operating procedures, update one another, divide tasks appropriately and cooperate, she said, adding that she would assess the improvements to the system on next year’s National Disaster Prevention Day.
Yesterday was the 19th anniversary of the 921 Earthquake, which took the lives of 2,456 people.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS