Services
STMSAR provides cadaver dogs alongside mounted resources or on foot.
WHAT DO HORSES ADD TO THE SEARCH?
HUMAN REMAINS DETECTION K9
- Horses are slower than ATVs, enabling the rider to easily search for clues and for the missing subject.
- Horses are faster than people on foot, enabling the team to quickly move from staging area to search area, move quickly between disparate search areas, and return from the outer reaches of their search area without the Command Post needing to deploy resources to retrieve the team.
- Horses are quieter than ATVs, enabling both the horse and rider to listen for voices, whistles, and other signals.
- Horses find their own best route down a path, enabling the rider to focus on looking for clues and for the missing subject.
- A horse/rider team covers a wide angle of vision, about 5-8' off the ground. Being on the back of a horse elevates the riders' eyes to about 8' off the ground, giving a very different angle of view to the ground than a walker or ATV rider would have. Meanwhile, the horses' eyes are about the same height as those of a person on foot would be.
- Because horses are prey animals, they're already looking for things that are out of place.
- Horses can see, hear, and smell things long before we can, and their reactions (stop, look and point their ears in that direction, sniff/snort/blow, etc) alert us that there's something we need to check out.
HUMAN REMAINS DETECTION K9
- If a search transitions from a rescue to a recovery effort, Human Remains Detection (cadaver) K9s are deployed.
- These canines are trained to locate the odor of human decomposition.
- They can locate human remains that have been buried, scattered, and even trace amounts of blood.
- These teams can work on or off leash in both urban and wilderness environments.
- They can be a very useful resource in locating evidence in fires, natural disasters, floods, to locate victims of accidents or criminal activity.
- Our mounted teams can utilize their canine alongside them to cover more ground.
