Roger, a failed drug dog, becomes a hero after the Taiwan earthquake

The dog searched through rocks and debris in Taiwan’s national park, looking for victims trapped or buried by landslides following a landslide. earthquake of magnitude 7.4.

Roger, a Labrador, stopped, sniffed and continued on.

But then he turned and sniffed again, apparently confused.

Roger was trained to do this look for survivorsbut his guide, Lee Hsin Hung, suspected he had found something else this time.

He ran to where Roger was.

“As I got closer, I saw the leg of the deceased,” Lee said in an interview.

Roger’s discovery led rescuers to recover the body of a 21-year-old woman from the rubble on Saturday, bringing the death toll from the strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years to 13.

More than Another 1,000 people were injured in the disaster (but strict building codes and public preparedness may have helped prevent an even bigger catastrophe).

Mission

Since then, Roger, one of the four dogs Search and rescue teams deployed by the Kaohsiung Fire Department in Hualien’s Taroko National Park became an unexpected protagonist in the recovery operation.

His playful antics, along with his experience as failed drug dogthey captured hearts and offered moments of levity for a country still recovering from the disaster.

During a press conference, he tried to chew a reporter’s microphone.

During another, as Lee praised his courage, he tore up a stuffed animal and scattered the stuffing on the floor.

Roger was trained to detect drugs at customs, but he failed the program because he was “too friendly and loud” Lee said.

When Roger was one year old, Lee chose him from among several rejected puppies to be part of the Kaohsiung emergency response team.

His behavior, which had ended his career as a drug detector, made Lee think that Roger might be an excellent one search dog and rescue.

“He was very agile, his movements were very bold and he didn’t let anything get in his way,” Lee said.

“He thought he could overcome any difficulty,” Lee added, and Roger was not intimidated by heights or unfamiliar places.

Since his rise to stardom, Roger has been dubbed a “little hero” by Taiwanese media and has appeared on talk shows to show off his skills.

But Roger’s fame will most likely be short-lived.

He will retire in the second half of this year, when he turns 9, Lee said, in accordance with Kaohsiung Fire Department policies.

“After all, he is already old” Lee told local reporters: “Coming back from the search and rescue mission, when he jumped into the car, he was a little unstable and I had to hold him up.

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