It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our search dog Bramble. She died from Leukemia, just 10 weeks after saving a life during her first operational call-out at a major search for a missing person.
Bramble was a 6 year old English Shepherd dog that qualified as a mountain rescue search dog in January 2024. She was true community dog, with her name chosen from over 200 suggestions made by the public on our facebook page.
On 22 May 2024, during her first operational call-out, Bramble found a missing person bringing a major search involving over 16 different search and rescue teams to a close. Operational search dog might only find 2 or 3 people in their career and what made this find so unique was that Bramble found the person on her very first search.
Just 10 weeks after saving a life, Bramble was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia and died on her 6th birthday. Her handler, Andrew was by her side.
Team leader Iain Nixon told us, “Bramble was a fantastic search dog and we are all incredibly sad that she has died so suddenly. Search dogs are very much part of our team and her loss is felt by everyone.”
“On behalf of the Team and especially her handler, Andrew, we’d like to offer our thanks to Ayres Veterinary Hospital in North Shields for doing all they could to help Bramble.”
It typically takes around 2-3 years to train each mountain rescue search dog, and the volunteer time required is equivalent to an investment of around £60k. One search dog team is able to cover ground and clear search areas that would otherwise need around 20 fully trained human searchers without dogs. An appeal has been launched to support future lifesaving search dogs, following in Bramble’s paw prints.
Half of the funds raised through this campaign will be donated to Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England (MRSDE), the charity that trains new mountain rescue search dogs and qualifies them to operational status. The other half of the funds raised will be shared between ourselves and our sister-team North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team. The money will support the costs of their search dogs, such as; veterinary care and associated insurance; dog related PPE, equipment, and consumables; and lifesaving equipment issued to the dog handler.
