INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Search-and-rescue dog teams that gained acclaim for their recovery efforts after Sept. 11 were struggling to find money for airline tickets for the dogs' handlers so they can attend training to become fully certified, officials said.
Anne McCurdy, who oversees the dogs in Indiana Task Force 1, has worked deals with airlines to convert donors' accumulated and unused frequent flier miles into airplane seats for the dogs' handlers. Dogs ride free and sit at the handlers' feet on the plane.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency actually supplements the funding of 13 dogs, so a lack of donated miles would not cripple the program. But McCurdy pointed out that the civilian dog handlers donate many things themselves, such as the twice-monthly unpaid training time, plus the commute.
Depending on their qualifications, dogs are used to tiptoe their way on top of and through collapsed structures to sniff out human victims.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversees 28 national task forces through FEMA. And FEMA wants to have a dozen Type I certified dogs by 2006.
Quietly, the Indiana task force is trying to become the largest of its kind in the nation, The Indianapolis Star reported Saturday.
``We're ahead of the game, the envy of the country, because we have so many dogs,'' said Tom Neal, a Warren Township firefighter who coordinates task force training.
Indiana's was the first task force in the nation to have 12 FEMA-certified dogs. Now it has 13, with seven in training.
