Specialists in searching and rescuing people, these dogs are part of the Spanish group of volunteers who travel to war to help
At the age of six, Bull and Gass are old enough to travel to Ukraine, where they search for victims buried in the rubble of the bombings. It is the first time that both dogs have come under fire and they will do so together with a group of volunteers made up of three Spanish specialists: Andrés Ballesteros, head of GOES-RK9 and the Civil Protection Dogs Department of the Municipality of Loeches (Madrid); Luís Caracena, head of the dog search unit of the Civil Defense of the Diputación de Castellón, and Sonia Martínez, also a member of this unit from Castellón, who will carry out planning and logistics tasks.
They travel from Vinaròs (Castellón) to the Polish border with Ukraine. There, they are joined by a translator and they contact the country’s emergency response teams. “Little by little they gave us some lines of action, but for security reasons they can’t reveal us anymore,” explains Ballesteros, an instructor with military experience in special operations and who, like his dog Bull, will also make his debut in a area at war. They will work with their Ukrainian counterparts in search and rescue and in turn teach them the techniques they use in Spain for rescues after a tragedy.
This team is touched by “their calling to help those in need”. For this they carry among their stocks “a lot of enthusiasm and a great desire to work”. “You want to get people out of the rubble who need our help and for our dogs to be able to locate them,” Ballesteros says. But first of all, they are aware that “we have to prepare” for what they are going to find in Ukraine, which in the words of this savior “will be very difficult”.
Along with that human team will be Bull, a Czech German Shepherd, and Gass, a Malonian Belgian Shepherd. Both go bareback, without vests, helmets or shrapnel protection. A harness and a beacon so your guides know where they are is all you bring. His main weapon is his sense of smell and training for the rescue.
“When the dogs get there, they will be in an environment similar to what they were in at their funeral,” Ballestero said. The team has even thought about the food for the dogs: dry or wet food. The latter is served in the ‘hot zones’ “because it’s faster and easier to take, so we have more time to search.” They will be in Ukraine for six days, during which Andrés Ballesteros is clear: “The first is the integrity of the team and that they are well protected.”
Source: La Verdad
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