Redog
REDOG Swiss Association for Search and Rescue Dogs is a non-profit humanitarian volunteer organization.
General
The association with around 650 members provides the Swiss Confederation and the cantons with certified search and rescue dog teams for searching for rubble and terrain, as well as specialists in technical location for operations at home and abroad. As a member of the Swiss rescue chain , he is an organization recognized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and has experience in humanitarian disaster operations.
REDOG is an active member of the Swiss Red Cross and a partner organization of Swiss Air Rescue (Rega) and Alpine Rescue Switzerland . It is also a section of the Swiss Cynological Society . The association is the umbrella organization of a total of 12 regional groups that cover the entire area of Switzerland. The highest body is the assembly of delegates. Management is the responsibility of the central board and the technical commission.
activity
The core competencies are:
- Rubble search
- Terrain search
- Technical location
- Search for bodies
- Mantrailing
history
The organization was founded in 1971 under the name of the Swiss Association for Disaster Dogs in Dübendorf ZH.
The name was changed to “REDOG - Swiss Association for Disaster Dogs” in 1996. “REDOG” is made up of the English words Rescue and Dog. In 2009 the name was finally changed to “REDOG - Swiss Association for Search and Rescue Dogs” in order to take account of the expansion of the areas of competence beyond disaster dog training. The founding idea goes back to a group of avalanche dog handlers from the Zurich area who, in 1968, united the idea of using their dogs to locate people who have been buried in rubble. Up to this point, no dogs have been systematically trained to search for rubble. Only in the Second World War dogs were used in Great Britain to search for victims in bombing raids. However, this was abandoned and the experience was largely lost.
The Zurich group called itself Gruppe-K-Zurich and dedicated itself to the training concept and the examination regulations, some of which are still valid today. As early as 1969, the teams of dog handlers and dogs came to the first two missions (Bergsturz Wägital SZ, Sprengstofffabrik Dottikon AG). As a result, groups were set up in eastern Switzerland, in Lucerne, Basel, Geneva and Bern to train disaster dogs.
The group K-Zurich was on November 20, 1971 in the Swiss Association for Disaster Dogs. Important missions were the railway accident in the Vierzy tunnel (1972) and the earthquake in Friuli (Italy) with 16 life rescues and 90 dead rescues. In 1979 the disaster dog was introduced into the Swiss Army. This resulted in a collaboration that continues to this day in the training of army dog handlers in the structures of REDOG.
In 1982 the activity was expanded to include the area of expertise of searching for missing persons in fields, forests and meadows, and in 1992 to include technical location. In the years after the first missions, further missions at home and abroad followed (including Algeria 1980, Naples 1980, North Yemen 1982, Mexico 1985, Armenia 1988) with numerous life rescues. From 1982 the organization was integrated into the structures of the Swiss rescue chain.
Calls
Terrain search teams are regularly on duty in Switzerland to search for missing people and support the blue light organizations. The operations of the disaster dog teams in recent years have been:
|