Tag archives: SDF

Thirty years ago this coming April, FEMA-Certified Canine Search Specialist Wilma Melville and her black lab Murphy spent a week rummaging through the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma. What stood out was just how few other rescue dogs were on site to search for survivors. When Melville realized only […]

When the founder of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) Wilma Melville was looking for a place and funding the banks all said, “You’re going to do what?” except Montecito Bank & Trust. It became a $30 million project and was open in 2010 for the business of training dogs to find live people […]

Among the heroes braving the Montecito mudslides in January were 18 teams from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF), the group’s largest single deployment since Hurricane Katrina. Based in Santa Paula, SDF had two veteran Canine Disaster Search Teams ready and waiting in the area prior to the slide, allowing them to get straight to work. […]