Ketchup is “aggressively affectionate,” according to Simon Hayter. She’s hyper, loud and “maybe not a dog everyone would want as a pet.”
But that’s not her calling. Ketchup is into rescue.
Hayter and Ketchup, a five-year-old Belgian Malinois, form the newest dog team addition to Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue (SC-SAR). Previously based in Squamish, Hayter moved to Garden Bay last summer to launch OTB Charters, a fishing operation.
The Sunshine Coast now boasts two search and rescue dog teams. The other is Joyce Tattersal and her dog Echo, who have been working since 2013.
“We’re lucky to have them,” said Don Neville, president of SC-SAR. He said it’s not always the case that a smaller region gets two teams. “Because it’s a volunteer-based organization, wherever they end up they join a team that’s local to where they are. I think it’s just luck.”
With Tattersal based in Gibsons and Hayter in Garden Bay, the teams can respond to calls more efficiently, and Neville said the Sunshine Coast makes it easy to catch a float plane to Vancouver Island or the Lower Mainland. “They are available for pretty much all of B.C. if they need it.”
Ketchup has already been involved in numerous calls, with her latest near Ladysmith, where a mushroom picker went missing. But Ketchup’s biggest moment, said Hayter, was her only “live find” – when she was the first to find a missing person. That happened in Squamish, which gets more than 90 calls a year. In this case, a call was made to help search for a suicidal man. Ketchup found him in about 45 minutes.
“He was in psychological distress and I think the dog finding him made the situation a little easier,” Hayter said. “There was a little bit of bonding between him and the dog… It’s a nice feeling having an animal run up to you in the bush rather than a whole bunch of strangers, with its tail wagging.”
Hayter, who used to be a journalist working in war zones, began training rescue dogs as a way of contributing to the community. “When you’re a journalist, you spend your whole life observing and documenting. It’s a challenging job that needs to be done, but sometimes part of you that wants to get involved and help.” He is also a volunteer paramedic and member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Search dog teams form part of local ground search and rescue teams and respond to requests via the RCMP, which come through the Provincial Emergency Program. There are approximately 20 teams in the province.
In 2017, there were 13 calls for search and rescue support on the Coast and four made to assist other teams in the province. On average, SC-SAR receives about 20 calls annually, with the number gradually increasing. In 2017, there was one call for a rescue dog on the Sunshine Coast near Gibsons and four calls for mutual aid off Coast. Since January, there have been three tasks involving Sunshine Coast rescue dogs, one in Halfmoon Bay, one in Wilson Creek and the other off Coast.
