Today’s Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants will be presented in Dutch, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Search-and-rescue dogs serve on the frontlines locating people missing after natural disasters, lost children, injured hikers and others, being ready at a moment’s notice to bravely endure the elements and save lives. Supreme Master Ching Hai, world renowned humanitarian, artist and spiritual teacher, speaks of her admiration and concern for these devoted canines.

And I saw many dogs, you know, they used for rescue mission. They just walk in like nothing, but I feel so bad about them.

The dogs walk in the sharp, broken glasses or anything like that, even chemical leaking or anything, or germs or danger.

And these are precious dogs. They have been trained for years. And they even lay down their life for anyone at command. You have to protect that dog.

To show her loving support for search dogs and their human partners, Supreme Master Ching Hai has generously contributed over US$80,000 to search-and-rescue teams in 18 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA.

On the morning of January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, leveling hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings on the island nation. International aid immediately poured into the small country. In the midst of the collapsed buildings and devastation, a team from the Netherlands arrived on the scene to do their job: search for the missing bodies buried under the rubble.

Without resting to acclimate themselves to the warmer Caribbean weather, they set to work, collaborating with French and Turkish crews. Soon after they began, a 24-year-old woman was located and rescued after being trapped in her home.

Who are these selfless beings who brave the unsafe conditions of a disaster area to seek for signs of life or for those who perished? They are the courageous canines of Signi Search Dogs of the Netherlands.

Rifka is a very experienced dog. She has been brought into action many times for earthquakes and a lot of other disasters.

Borat is quite efficient with his energy. He tends to respond very quickly to what he smells.

He can go for long distances very well. He is very fast, so while searching he can go through large areas.

Signi Search Dogs of the Netherlands is a non-profit organization founded with the mission of locating missing persons through the assistance of dogs certified in recovery training. Volunteer-based, Signi Search Dogs specializes in professionally training their canines to search for those who have drowned and for missing people in disaster areas.

For us, it’s also very important that we can locate dead persons. We notice that in the Netherlands but also for people abroad that life can only continue when they know where the deceased person is so that they can bury the dead and go on with their lives and start building their lives again. Otherwise people keep searching for survivors.

Regardless of water depth, temperature or type of water, through their superior canine senses, these dogs can detect a scent and locate the water surface area to find the drowned person. Signi Search Dogs can be deployed even when the precise location is uncertain or unknown, and there is no limitation as to the time the drowning took place.

In the Netherlands, there is a lot of water. So in case someone is missing, the chance is very high that he has drowned. Every week, our dogs are looking for humans who are missing in the water.

Endowed with a sense of smell said to be a thousand times greater than that of a human, dogs are used in locating drowned persons because they can greatly narrow down the water area to search for the body.

She can look very patiently on the water, on the boat. For example, last year she found a boy who was in his car and who drove in the water. The car was just above a waterfall, and the dog recognized the smell, on the top of the waterfall. So, we could have this boy recovered and the parents had peace.”

Search-and-rescue canines can be classified as air-scenting dogs or trailing and tracking dogs. In air-scenting or open area search, canines direct their sensitive nose up high in the air to locate human scent through skin rafts, perspiration or respiratory gases. In trailing and tracking, the dogs follow the scent of an object to find its missing owner.

We are going to reenact in the training that there are two dead persons in the rubble and one living person is in the rubble. You will see in the behavior of the dog whether she has found a living or a dead person.

The dog goes to the living person and stays there barking. With a deceased person, the dog turns around and looks for contact with the guide. So the guide knows, “Okay, this person has passed away.”

These highly intelligent canines are well-trained to adapt to different situations, whether the missing person is in water, underground, beneath rubble, in the woods, or under snow.

Now we will show how dogs can handle themselves in unique situations to demonstrate how they think about getting to the person. This can be via stairs, it can be via scent stream.

She’s a fantastic dog. You saw her running through the screen; she is very driven in the search.

She is well-rounded: she is good in the water, she is good in the debris, good on the plains, and searches very well for living people, but also for those who perished.

She loves her job.

The canines of Signi Search Dogs are not just professional dogs who have the heroic capability to rescue people, but they are also the beloved companions of the human volunteers.

He is our best friend at home. We are just incredibly crazy about him. Training is the coolest thing for him and retrieve balls and swimming and that’s why we still spend a lot of time doing that. We are true friends.

She is a very happy, cheerful dog, who searches over large distances and loves the water, loves her job, like all of us.

Also, with my other dog, I experienced something very special. We were looking for an elderly lady, who had become mentally ill, and had disappeared. And at some point, my dog swam into a ditch and found the lady.

Just like humans, every dog has a distinct personality and specialty, which proves to be especially helpful in search and rescue missions. Let’s now meet Rover and his vegetarian caregiver Maaike.

What was the reason you became vegetarian?

When I was about fifteen years old, it was actually because of animal suffering. And eventually, it’s also in a broader perspective that I, because of environmental problems and all kinds of suffering, sustainability of the planet, I remained steadfast with it.

We have a very special bond; he’s a very nice dog.

He’s one of the highest jumpers. He can go for a long distance away from me. He can run very fast over the debris… Rover!… And he’s good at escaping.

Signi Search Dogs has contributed its efforts in such disasters as Hurricane Luis in St. Martin (1995); tsunamis in Sri Lanka and Thailand (2004); Hurricane Katrina in the United States (2005); and earthquakes in Turkey (1999), Morocco (2004), Pakistan (2005) and China (2008).

Heralded as heroes not only at home in the Netherlands but around the world, these dedicated canines truly deserve all praises and accolades for their courage, remarkable intelligence, and devotion to helping others.

The relationship with my dog is very special, because we have experienced together very special things. My dog has gone along to various disasters, such as in China and Haiti. There, she found several people. The special thing about this dog is that she can crawl anywhere. So even people who are far away or hard to access, she knows how to pinpoint very accurately.

It’s really a super dog, this one.

One of their most recent international missions was for the devastating Haiti earthquake in January, which involved the honorable dogs Rifka, Finder, Borat, Scanner and Kazan. Working in Haiti for over a week, they helped to locate more than a hundred humans who perished in the wake of the disaster.

You come into a totally different environment. A very different culture.

In other nations, the country could still provide food and drink, but that was not so in Haiti. After returning, we collected things to send back to that country.

Just to work with the local residents and you can only do this very small thing, but you are doing it, and your dog does it… yes, that’s beautiful.

For their selfless work and devoted service to humanity, Supreme Master Ching Hai contributed US$1000 to Signi Search Dogs of the Netherlands to further the group’s noble work and provide care and protective gear for the canine heroes.

Thank you very much. We want to say we are very, very thankful to you for the gift that you gave us. This will spent very usefully. We are a small but a very hardworking group, and it will immediately go towards helping to find missing people.

We try as much as possible to continue this work, and that’s why we’re so happy with such a large amount which, again, allows us to purchase materials and things or an airplane ticket.

Our deep gratitude, Signi Search Dogs of the Netherlands, for your dedicated hearts and noble service to fellow beings in need. Heaven’s blessings for the continued health and safety of both human and animal members in your ongoing missions.

For more details on the Netherlands, please visit:

It was a pleasure to have your company for today’s program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment, following Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May all animal benefactors and co-inhabitants be treated with due respect, dignity and kindness.