April’s meeting certainly gave our members paws for thought as we welcomed two real life heroes, Echo and Pepper. 

Echo is the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) dog for the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and Pepper volunteers for the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA).   Both canine heroes rely on their super mammal noses to sniff out people trapped in buildings or lost and hurt on mountain sides.

Echo’s job is to search for people who have been trapped in a building as a result of an explosion or an earthquake, this service was introduced after 9/11.  His handler, Mike Dewar, wowed the crowd with multi award winner Echo’s many accolades, he was part of the team that won the pride of Britain 2010 award for his actions during the Haiti earthquake, he was also the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) animal of the year 2010 and was a runner up in the Crufts friends for life award in 2011.

Mike brought in some of the kit used when the dogs are at work, he showed us the cutest and possibly smelliest dog boots we have ever seen.  The shoes are crucial and keep the dogs feet protected when they at work, they can only be bought them in pairs!!  Echo came in at the end of Mike’s talk for much WI love and petting.

Pepper and her owner Ellie Sherwin were next on stage, SARDA has over 30 dogs and handlers that volunteer their time to support Mountain Rescue, the police and many others when people need to be found in England’s difficult terrains.  Pepper had a 3 year training programme before she was ready to be a full member of SARDA, she relies on air scenting to locate human scent on the wind.  The scent of people sitting is different to those of people moving around!  Pepper trains regularly on Hardcastle Cragg finding ‘bodies’, bodies are volunteers who lie on the hillside in sleeping bags and wait to be found – all good fun as long as you have a flask to keep you warm!

Both dogs bark to alert handlers to their finds, Pepper will shuttle run between the person and Ellie until Ellie reaches the injured person.  Ellie carries an emergency tent, warm clothing, a first aid kit, a GPS and other tools to help in the rescue of people.

A night filled with dogs and stories of rescues, doesn’t get better for a WI with a border terrier as its’ mascot!  We really enjoyed meeting these amazing dogs and their fantastic owners.  So what’s next for the Salford Angels WI?  A select few are busy getting cycle fit ready for the epic ride to Denman College and we’re raising money for this at the MS Society event on 4^th May and opening our very first Tearoom at Sounds from the Other City the next day!