Search Dog Teams Grow With One Woman’s Efforts
Ed Murray, News 9
September 7, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A retired California
PE teacher started a hobby in the early 1990s
training search dogs. Wilma Melville and
her black lab, Murphy, were FEMA certified in 1994. In April of the following year
both were here searching for survivors in
the rubble of the Murrah Building. At 77
years old, these tragedies are never far from
Melville’s mind.
“The days that followed were simply life
changing. One doesn’t get a chance to think
about the details or what’s really happening
until you get home,” Melville said.
And one detail stood out: There were only
15 FEMA-certified canine search teams in
the country at that time. So Melville started
the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation with private funding and grants--no tax
dollars... And on 9-11 13 teams which had
trained at the foundation were at the World
Trade Centers.
“One cannot help but face the horror of that
particular incident, the same with Oklahoma
City. Individual people are forever impacted.
Their families and their friends equally so,
but we must, I believe, look at what good can
grow out of a disaster.”
Wilma Melville training a search dog
Photo by Sergio Valencia
There have been 81 deployments over the
years by foundation trained teams. Teams
based in Oklahoma City and Tulsa responded
to the Joplin tornado earlier this year. In all,
Melville and her team have produced 131
search teams, closing in on a number she
established soon after April 19, 1995.
“My personal goal is to see the search dog
foundation produce 168 FEMA-certified
teams, one for each of those people that died.
To me, that is helpful to getting over or at
least past the tragedy,” she said.
Melville believes her goal is now within reach.
The foundation has raised $8 million towards
the $14.5 million it will take to build the
country’s first-ever training center for canine
disaster search teams.
Melville’s Search Dog Foundation will dedicate the ground for the center this Sunday, 9-11.
L to R: Jeff Leon & Justice, Judy Zinn & Royce, Vincent Stoops & Magnum, Adrienne Seibel & Danni
Photo by Sharon Hanzelka