K-9 Search and Rescue

K-9 Search and Rescue

LAMBERTVILLE-NEW HOPE AMBULANCE AND RESCUE SQUAD (LNHARS), has added a canine search and rescue unit to its organization. The new K9 SEARCH UNIT (LNHARS K9 Unit) is an official part of the LNHARS, a non-profit (501c.3) organization of both career staff and unpaid volunteers.  The K9 Unit was authorized in January of 2015 and became operational on April 1, 2015. The expressed purpose of the K9 Unit is to deploy K9 teams for missing person incidents. The dogs use air scenting methods to locate the subject. The initial K9 Unit is composed of members of Palisades Search and Rescue Dog Association, Inc., a search and rescue team established in 1979. The new K9 unit comes to the Squad with handlers and dogs certified in all aspects of K-9 Search and Rescue including, wilderness search, water recovery, human remains (cadaver) search, and collapse structure search.

The unit will and has responded to request throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.  Search and rescue assignments are received through official government agencies such as, local, state or park police, fire departments and county emergency services.

The K9 Unit members train as a team twice a month. Training includes drills for K9 search, land navigation, survival, radio communications, first aid, CPR and dog handling. The dogs must be certified by a nationally recognized certifying agency. These include the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the State Urban Search and Rescue Association (SUSAR), the United States Canine Police Association (USPCA), and the Search and Rescue Council of New Jersey (SARCNJ) among others.  Funding is provided by public contributions to the Squad and budgeted to the K9 search unit by the Finance Committee of the Squad.  K9 Unit members pay for most of their personal expenditures and personal equipment that is not provided by the Squad.  The dogs are owned by the K9 Unit members.

We are so fortunate to have such Kind, Competent Professionals such as yourselves.

— – Lambertville Resident