Horses Dogs Search Rescue Trained Find Missing Rescuers

Animals are often used for search and rescue "missions" (projects with a specific purposes), because they have certain abilities that are better than those of humans, or that "complement" (go together well with; match) humans' abilities.

For examples, most dogs have a "keen" (sharp; very good) "sense of smell" (able to smell very faint (light) odors and identify them), so they are often used in search and rescue efforts. "Herding" (trained to chase sheep and control where they go) dogs like German shepherds and border collies are often trained for "airscenting" (detecting (finding) the scent of humans in the air) and used to find "missing persons" (people whose location is unknown). Other dogs are trained for "tracking," where they look for missing people by following their scent over the ground. "Cadaver" (dead body) dogs are used to find the bodies of people who have died.

In a "mounted" (riding on the back of a four-footed animal) search-and-rescue mission, horses are used to transport human searchers and rescuers. The horses move more quickly over "rugged" (rough; uneven) "terrain" (land) than humans on foot, and they are able to reach places that are "inaccessible" (not able to be reached) by cars and other vehicles. Sometimes the horses are used only for transportation, but in other cases, the horses have been trained to "assist" (help) the rescuers in identifying missing persons. Horses have a keen sense of hearing, smell, and vision, so they can "point the rescuers to" (indicate where the rescuers should look for) "clues" (hints or ideas about something) to find the missing person.