Tag Archives: USAR

FIDO Cam

Watch out criminals.  You’re on FIDO Cam!

Made in the UK by the Military and Law Enforcement Division of Industrial Television Ltd, FIDO Cam was developed to assist police SWAT units which needed to check inside buildings before their teams entered.  The apparatus has also been used in drug busts and in search and rescue operations.

FIDO Cam is mounted on trained police and rescue dogs as seen here:

FIDO Cam

The company estimates that 70% of the police units in the UK own the gear; when activated, the camera sends a live feed of what ever the dog is seeing back to the handler.

FIDO Cam 2

Camera footage can also be used in court as evidence.

I wonder how long even a highly trained dog will wear the device (because it doesn’t look very comfortable).

At over £10,000 per unit, one thing is for sure:  it’s unlikely that these cameras will be purchased by dog owners who want to know what their dog gets up to when they are not at home!

USAR dogs and the Christchurch earthquake

The dogs of Urban Search and Rescue played a special part in the initial emergency response after Christchurch’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake on 22 February 2011.  Here is the special edition of Pawprint, the newsletter of the NZ USAR Search Dog Association.  This newsletter provides the best detail yet of how the earthquake event unfolded and the role of the dog teams in searching for survivors.

Pawprint special earthquake edition

Learn more about the NZ USAR Search Dog Association on their website.

I’m pleased to say that Canine Catering Ltd was one of the many small businesses and individuals which donated funds to the USAR Search Dog Association as part of the SBS Marathon.

Please join me in again thanking the hard work of the NZ USAR search dog teams and particularly to Cairo who is  special massage customer (funded by his handler, Janelle).