The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has donated $150,000 to Ojai’s Search Dog Foundation, an organization that trains canine-firefighter teams to search for and rescue people buried alive underneath wreckage in disaster locations. With the donation, the foundation is closer toward reaching its goal of building a national training center, which would train rescued canines to become search dogs and prepare all American search teams in one location, the foothills of Santa Paula. The all-inclusive facility will include a demanding environment that will mimic actual disaster situations, a veterinary medical suite, classrooms in which handlers will share their knowledge on training and deployments, and a lodge for handlers and their families.
