Meet a Search & Rescue Golden Retriever named McCarthy

Meet Golden McCarthy

A four-legged Katrina volunteer pays a visit to Seekonk students
By Pamela J. Braman, East Bay Newspapers, December 16, 2005

Firefighter John Braganca and his Golden Retriever, McCarthy, a RI Urban Search and Rescue Team member, visits with second-graders Madison George and Katelyn Leclerc of Martin Elementary School on Tuesday as they wrap gifts for first-graders in Mississippi who were impacted by hurricane Katrina.

SEEKONK - This week, McCarthy, a four-year-old Golden Retriever trained in search-and-rescue, was busy doing training exercises, and Tuesday he visited second graders at the George R. Martin Elementary School. At the Martin school, a good-natured McCarthy, 85 pounds and wearing an official Rhode Island Urban Search and Rescue vest, greeted everyone in Ann Marie Braganca's class with a wagging tail (she is one of his owners).

When not visiting, he spent most of his time searching for tennis balls he found tucked away in a corner cabinet.

But in the beginning of September, happy-go-lucky McCarthy was in the New Orleans area involved in a grim task. He and owner John Braganca, a 16-year firefighter, traveled to Katrina-torn Waveland, Mississippi, to perform rescue duties. The two worked for 16 days searching, and then researching, the whereabouts of reported missing persons.

"On the very first day out, McCarthy found a cadaver, someone they had been looking for. Though the find was disheartening, it's good in that it helps the family find closure," said Mr. Braganca.

But what wasn't good was that when the two reported for duty that first day, they were on their own. What they found at the site was a team of local responders who watched them expectantly while they searched, waiting to spring into action if a find was made.

"The way things went down that day was stressful. But there were no more finds like that. And then the focus changed. Over several days, we spent hours researching and calling around to various shelters throughout the country, to locate a number of other individuals of concern," said Mr. Braganca.

The owner explained that search-and-rescue dogs can perform their duties because of a well-developed canine sense of smell. This natural ability is combined with training, performed always with positive reinforcement, i.e., a reward whenever a find is made. "Even though they are carefully trained and the service they perform is real and valuable, the searching duties are, to the dog, a game. Still, they have a very strong desire to succeed, to come through in response to the order they've been given."

And the dogs do, at times, display emotional reactions as a result of their search-and-rescue duties. "When you put the vest on them, they get excited, because they know it's time to work." "But they can also get into a depressed mode, on an extended search that yields no results. And they seem to react differently to the results of a cadaver search than they do to a rescue or wilderness search."

E.P. Firemen return from hurricane duty
By Kimberly Harper, East Bay Newspapers, November 23, 2005

The firefighters who went down to help with Hurricane Katrina aftermath in Mississippi, (from left): Firefighter Jay Dent, Lt. John Braganca, Lt. Michael Carey, Lt. Julian Bayuk, Lt. Craig Brearley and MacCarthy the search dog, who works with Lt. Braganca.

EAST PROVIDENCE - The City of East Providence recently honored five firefighters who went to Mississippi with the Rhode Island Urban Search and Rescue team to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, and one firefighter who went in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Act.

"It's heartening to see the recognition goes well beyond East Providence," said Mayor Joseph Larisa Jr., who presented the proclamations to the six men and MacCarthy, the golden retriever who assisted in the searches. Mayor Larisa said that he often gets calls from people commending the fire department for their local efforts as well.

The team

Lt. Julian Bayuk, Lt. John Braganca, Firefighter Jay Dent, Lt. Craig Brearley, Lt. Michael Carey and nationally certified search and rescue dog MacCarthy were the members of the East Providence part of RIUSAR. Jarrett Devine, of the fire department, also went down south, but with the Federal Emergency Management Act (FEMA), and stayed for a longer amount of time.

Mr. Devine, who has been a reservist for FEMA for approximately five years, went to New Orleans two days before the storm hit and stayed for 35, as the Logistics Chief, in charge of all Louisiana logistics operations, including co-ordinating evacuations. At first, he said, people were reluctant to obey the state-mandated evacuation, under the mentality that the storm probably wouldn't hit them. The federal government could not get involved until after the storm actually hit, according to Mr. Devine. Then the levees broke, and people wanted out. Sheltering and the moving of displaced residents was also a challenge.

"Eighty percent of the city was underwater," he reported. The draining of New Orleans and the repair of the levees went relatively quick, but, according to Mr. Devine, the majority of the residents realized that there was nothing left. "It was kind of hard to imagine ... it wasn't whether or not your home was destroyed. Flooding doesn't pick and choose ... flooding takes everything."

Mr. Devine has worked on many disaster sites before, including a typhoon in Guam, Florida's hurricanes last year and 9/11." "9/11 was definitely a tragic event," he said, "but you could get your hands around it."

Boats, buses and planes

Hurricane Katrina was size-prohibitive, especially considering the number of people who chose not to evacuate in time. There was nowhere in the state to bring evacuees, so transport was in three stages: Boats out of the city, then buses, then planes out of the state. Comparatively, "it was the worst thing I've ever seen," said Mr. Devine, who said the fire department back home was very supportive of his trip to Louisiana.

The two weeks the five firefighters spent in Hancock County, Miss., with RIUSAR, a 40-man team, were intense, according to firefighters. In their searches, they would see water lines in the trees, sometimes 30 feet high, and neighborhoods that, according to Lt. Bayuk, looked like a lumber yard in which someone had played the game "Pickup Sticks." House searches would reveal debris from miles away, across the bay, searches of the woods would reveal boats.

In one instance, Lt. Bayuk said they came across a twin-motor boat in the middle of the woods with both engines down, the key in the "on" position and the throttles in forward. "What the hell were these people going through?" he reflected. "You don't know what to expect before you get there."

When Lt. Bayuk learned the team would be going to Mississippi, he said he was surprised, since New Orleans seemed to be getting the most media coverage, but said he learned the area in which the team worked was the area considered ground zero, where the storm surges were particularly violent. One man told firefighters that, though he lived a couple of miles inland, the water in his area rose nine feet in three to five minutes.

"The biggest thing was the attitude of the people down there," said Lt. Braganca, who went to Mississippi in the company of MacCarthy, his golden retriever who is trained in both human rescue and cadaver search. He saw people who had refused to leave when the water rose, who stayed and had plans to rebuild from the ruins, staying in trailers where their homes used to be, using old furniture to get by, sometimes housing extended family. These people, lifetime residents, were the ones who would invite the firefighters in for a drink of water for themselves or MacCarthy.

MacCarthy on the case

The firefighters got into Mississippi at 2 a.m. on Saturday, got to bed by 4 and were awake and on the road by 9:30 that same morning. A family had called the team in. They believed that their grandmother, who had stayed at her home close to the Gulf, was somewhere in the debris. "As soon as we started our search, he (MacCarthy) indicated to me that he had a scent," said Lt. Braganca, who said that they found the woman's body within 40 minutes. Lt. Braganca wondered exactly what that would spell out for the rest of their time there, but that body was the only cadaver MacCarthy uncovered during their stay.

Working with a dog is different than working with a team, and sometimes, it would just be Lt. Braganca and MacCarthy. In teamwork, questions can be bounced off of other members, but, "Out with the dog, it's different ... you have no one else to throw anything off." Fortunately, "The dog knows what he's doing."

The work was hard, and it took its toll on MacCarthy, who wound up in one of the few remaining veterinarian's offices, diagnosed with exhaustion after waking up sick one morning. For Lt. Braganca, who lost his other dog over the summer, shortly before their trip, "it was tough" to see the young MacCarthy down. The vet recommended a couple of days off, but by 3:30 that day, after spending the morning and early afternoon out cold, the dog was up and trying to go out. "He was raring to go," said Lt. Braganca.

Lt. Bayuk praised the support the team received from the fire department, city government, department administration and their families. "We were fortunate," he said. "Not all communities enjoyed the same support."

The East Providence men did not have issues with internal politics that plagued other departments, and the families that remained behind in Rhode Island were also tremendously supportive. "My wife said 'go'," said Lt. Bayuk. Mr. Devine added, "When you come home, it definitely is a huge sigh of relief."

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