NYPD K9 teams get disaster certification

Published on December 2, 2018

These dogs rock.

Half a dozen NYPD canines headed off to disaster school this weekend — where they were certified ready to sniff out victims buried in rubble after a cataclysmic event.

The dogs — along with fellow K9 officers from states such as New Jersey, Florida, California, Ohio and Virginia — went through their rigorous series of exercises at The Fresh Kills Canine Training Facility in Staten Island on Saturday and Sunday.

“These dogs are the ones who are gonna be searching for people under rubble,” Det. Scott Mateyaschuk, lead trainer with the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit K9 Unit, told The Post.

The brave pups and their handlers were given 20 minutes to traverse through a massive pile of rubble — which was meant to mimic what a city filled with crushed buildings would look like after a natural disaster. Read More