The Rescued Dogs That Rescue People

During one of the worst disasters, Wilma’s Foundation receives a surprising gift.

On 11 September 2001, Wilma was able to send 13 dogs to the collapsed World Trade Center buildings and attracted the attention of an intern at Fox News whose job it was to type the text that scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

“This is such an interesting story, you should tell the public,” said the intern.

The intern scrolled Wilma’s number across the bottom of the screen for 12 hours and the donations poured in from across the country. At the end of he day Wilma’s organization had received one million dollars.

 

A rescue dog working in Nepal

Since then Wilma’s dogs and their handlers have responded to crises all over the world, most recently sending six teams to Nepal.

Her dream is to build a national training centre, the first of its kind in the US, where rescued dogs become rescuers and where international search teams can tackle state-of-the-art simulations of any disaster anywhere on Earth. And through Wilma’s indomitable perseverance it’s nearing completion on 125 acres of donated ranch land, 90 minutes north of Los Angeles.

Wilma makes her home in an aircraft hanger and shares her living room with an airplane and her home with two dachshunds, Newton and Darwin.

Thanks to BBC News for this story.

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