Canadian canine search teams depart for Haiti

At least five Canadian search experts and their dogs have departed for Haiti to help find victims and survivors in the rubble, following Tuesday's massive earthquake.

Mark Pullen, a Burnaby firefighter, was one of three members of the Canadian Search and Disaster Dog Association (CASDDA) that left Vancouver International Airport on Wednesday night.

Once in Haiti, they'll be joined by two other team members from Alberta and their dogs, and dispatched to search collapsed buildings for people who still might be alive. 

As he prepared to board his flight with his dog Zak, Pullen told CBC News he knows time is short, but saving even one person would make it worthwhile.

'He'll be telling me that there's someone not alive, or basically alive.' —Mark Pullen, Canadian canine search team member

"You picture someone who's lying in whatever circumstance under rubble and already suffering the trauma of the building around them, or on them, so time is something you're racing with," he said.

"You're up against the clock to see how fast you go — four or five days — and you have to work fast," he said.

The team was alerted to the disaster just 19 minutes after the earthquake hit.

"We're part of the United Nations global network that gives almost-instantaneous notifications of global disasters," said Richard Lee, CASDDA's Edmonton-based president, on Wednesday. "That gives us an opportunity to start preparing so that as soon as the call comes out for help, then we are ready to dispatch."

Lee is staying in Canada to co-ordinate the team's logistics, but his wife, Sylvie Montier, is heading to Haiti with her dog.

"You get very hyper, very short-tempered even, sometimes, but to be honest, there is no feeling to have," she said Wednesday. "As soon as we arrive, we start working usually, and we have no time to think about anything."

Dog's signal leads search efforts

Using dogs to search after a catastrophic earthquake is a key to finding survivors because what the dogs smell determines where searchers dig, said Pullen. He'll be counting on his dog Zak to give him one of two different signals when the dog smells a person or body in the rubble.

"He'll be telling me that there's someone not alive, or basically alive — there's quite a difference [between the signs]. One is a barking. The other is a scratching," said Pullen.

"Canine is really the first step to try and see where the people are. Then the digging starts. If they're far in the concrete you're looking at more hours," he said.

Pullen has been doing this kind of work for 10 years, but said this is the first earthquake work for Zak, who was once rescued himself — from a dog pound in Abbotsford.

"The biggest challenge is that there's so much work to be done, and from what we're hearing there's so many people, and it'll take some time to get the limited resources working," he said.

Pullen and the other Canadian dog experts have been told they have until Sunday to search the rubble before heading home.