Initiatives

PoL current initiatives include our Paws of Life K9 Placement Program, SAR K9 Handler Education and K9 Team Coaching. All of these programs are designed to create more highly qualified search and rescue teams at the local level.

These K9 search and rescue teams are extremely important to law enforcement, emergency management professionals and the families of lost and missing people. Volunteer K9 search and rescue teams can be used to find persons/children in the following instances:

• Lost hunters, hikers, bikers, wilderness recreational enthusiasts
• Drowning victims
• Abductions
• Disoriented elderly persons who wander away from their care facility
• Whenever there is a lost/missing person

Many K9 teams are also used to assist law enforcement in the location of clandestine graves for homicide investigations or for predator abductions of children. This takes specific and highly trained K9's and handlers. Many law enforcement agencies can not afford to have these resources on staff full time. They are a highly trained, expensive resource that hopefully the law enforcement agency needs infrequently.

PoL believes that when those resources are needed, they should be experienced, professional volunteers.