Image Credit: CFJC Today
SRD K9s

SRD K9s of B.C. opens its newest facility

Jun 25, 2023 | 8:48 AM

KAMLOOPS — It’s a facility that has been nearly five years in the making. The Search, Recovery and Detection K9s of B.C. opened their doors to the public for the first time Saturday (June 24) at their grand opening. It’s a facility that’s primarily dedicated to K9 training.

“This building was completely designed with the forethought of providing a world class centre of excellence for k9 training,” Vice President Randy Macleod told CFJC Today. “All of the features have been designed into it for example the surface of the floors that’s dog friendly and provides the right degree of traction, right to the walls and all the features within the building are really designed for this purpose.”

With the new facility, the SRD K9s will have the chance to host education seminars and workshops ranging from K9 dogs to a basic one. The funding for the facility came with the help of the Cooper Family Foundation who donated one million dollars.

“All the people that work with me at cooper companies, we either all have now or have had in our lives dogs,” Todd Cooper said in a speech. “That passion for dogs and passion for what SRD is doing came naturally.”

Macleod says with the SRD K9s having a new home, it will give the dogs more space and resources to train more often along with helping people find their loved ones who have gone missing.

“Emergency resources of course go scrambled when somebody goes missing or is overdue but all too often it seems there’s a finite period to that,” said Macleod “What the families do after the searches stood down because there’s just not enough information to go on? how do families seek some help? how do they pursue finding the answers that can lead them towards eventual closure hopefully.”