I know there are a few S/R people on this forum...

I just got a McMurdo Fastfind personal locator beacon for hiking, backpacking, etc. The device is to alert S/R if you are in distress and to tell them your location, and it's only meant to be used for critical, life threatening situations when there's no other possible solution. The question is: what if the emergency is for your dog rather than for yourself or another human? How pissed would the S/R crew be and how much trouble would you be in for activating the beacon in the event of a critical emergency for your dog?

I'm just curious, but it's also always good to plan ahead just in case -

Something to keep in mind is, you can be charged the full cost of a rescue, even if it truly is an emergency.

This could range well into the six-digit range.

Something else to consider is that people are endangering their lives. How comfortable would you be, telling someone that their husband/wife/daughter/son/mother/father/etc died rescuing your dog?

No judgment involved in my post at all- just things to consider.

Yep - thanks for the info Aaron. Those are some good points.

Basically, as much as we all love our dogs, you should really only activate the beacon as an absolute last resort for a human's welfare.

What if (this is an extreme hypothetical) your dog has fallen off a cliff to a ledge below and has broken his leg - you can't just leave him there to suffer for days and days before dying of stress/thirst/shock/etc, but you also can't get down to him without seriously risking your own life. What you need is someone with the proper equipment to belay down and get him.

I suppose you shouldn't activate the beacon, but you do have to hike out and get the wilderness rangers, who would then know what to do...

I have to agree with Aaron. If a rescue team brings a chopper in and it crashes during the operation...

Matt, that last hypothetical you posed is so low-probability - I don't think it's on the map. You will be falling off the cliff before your dog will (unfortunately, of course.)

Just to be clear, I never said what one should, or shouldn't do.

I just listed some of the factors that should enter into the decision making process.

> You will be falling off the cliff before your dog will (unfortunately, of course.)

The good thing is that then you'd have a good excuse to activate the beacon!

 Quote: Matt Lang

The good thing is that then you'd have a good excuse to activate the beacon!

Maybe train the dog to activate that sucker? (Lassie would have)

Hi Matt,

I commend you for thinking about what you might do in the event that you or your dog are incapacitated or injured before it actually happens. I've been a volunteer with a ground search and rescue team for the past 8 years, and I can tell you that (planning) precaution, in and of itself, it the best thing you can do to ameliorate and handle a possible 'situation'.

I'm not familiar with the device you mention, but have just started to use this one (SPOT transmitter) http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/6636
One of the options with this transmitter is for you to push a 'I'm worried, but it's not an emergency' button. This is sent to the e-mail address of people you have identified previously. In addition, you can track your progress and location and send that information remotely to an e-mail address without notifying any emergency personnel. The SOS button is for true emergencies.

With respect to your dog, several people our team has rescued or found have had a dog with them. In fact, the presence of a dog with a person is thought to raise your chance of survival, no doubt because it improves the victims state of mind and provides warmth. I think that if your dog were injured or trapped in a place that required specialized equipment for extraction (like the cliff you mention), a SAR group or Fire Department (which are responsible for high-angle rescues here) would consider assisting if they were not on stand-by or called out for another search. However, I would not recommend hitting the 'panic' button if it were 'only' your dog that was injured, in case the team was deployed to a remote area and this prevented them from searching in a timely manner an another search (for a person/s). Rather, you could get some friends (maybe fellow climbers) to help you out in this situation.
Personally, I recommend that if your dog accompanies you to places where such an accident can occur (as mine does), you be versed in dog first aid ( I ordered a book on this topic from LB a few years back) and that you carry a dog first aid kit. You can customize what you place in those kits to your activity and environment. A large (lightweight) tarp and some good rope can be invaluable items for rescues for both people and pets.
I carry also a tie-out with me, in the event my dog is injured and I need to leave him to get help. Training your dog to be calm if he is lifted or wrapped during transport can really help you during an extraction or transport. An good example here are sled dogs that are comfortable traveling ON the sled inside a sled bag. Another example might be training your dog to be slung over your shoulders, with their legs on either side of your neck, a sort of fire-mans carry. My dog weights 87 lbs so obviously that one is not practical for me for anything but a short distance...If you and your dog are likely to be rescued using an ATV or Skidoo, then having them ride comfortably on these, even if there is not trailer would also be useful. Anhoo this is getting long-but you see there are many small things that you could do to mitigate the type of situation you describe.
Whatever you do--don't stop exploring!

Happy trails,

Isabelle

OH--and don't forget to carry a whistle!

ADDENDUM:

Sorry--this just came to mind, which is shocking because it's one of the basic principles of SAR (I'm a bad volunteer today!): whatever you do, you must ensure your own safety..two victims are worse than one, and you can't help your dog if you're injured, too...
Also, if you have a means of communicating OTHER than this dvice (sat phone cell phone etc) you could communicate your situation, and let the search manager make the call regarding deployment.

A while back our SAR team leader and I wrote a couple of articles on what to do if you're lost, or if you need to do a search (after a prior year when a search was necessary) in case you're interested:

http://www.fungimag.com//spring-09-articles/Lost.pdf
http://www.fungimag.com/special-spring-09-articles/FindBob.pdf

Regards,

Isabelle