Squamish Search and Rescue request helicopter to rescue dog, but were first told ‘no’

Squamish Search and Rescue was called this week after a dog got itself into trouble along the Cheakamus River on Tuesday evening.

Brian Messer, his wife Andrea, and their dog Maverick were climbing along the Star Chek Trail when Maverick decided to go exploring.

Messer said Maverick was off-leash and went down an embankment toward the river and somehow got sucked in by the current.

“So we didn’t see this happen,” he said. “We only saw the aftermath. So when he didn’t come back on the recall, we went down and saw him in the water kind of way down ways.”

When Messer called up to his wife and then looked back, Maverick was gone.

“Our reaction was to run as fast as we could back to the vehicle, drive into Squamish, go up as far as we could up Paris Valley,” Messer said.

“And then we spent three hours combing the creek bed of that river as far as I could physically go at that point, like I thought it was over.”

Their friends drove up from Vancouver with a drone to help search and they drove back up the top of Star Chek and another hiker said they heard a dog barking.

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Messer said they had already corresponded with Search and Rescue at this point but there was little the team could do as it got dark.

“We just hoped with every bone that we had in our body that Maverick would find a way to survive,” Messer added. “And luckily, he did.”

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At first light on Wednesday, a team of water and rope techs with Squamish Search and Rescue set out.

“This was actually an amazing effort by our team of volunteers,” B.J. Chute, a manager with Squamish Search and Rescue, told Global News.

It was a long hike in through challenging terrain, and the rescue team said they could have reached the area quicker and safer with a helicopter.

But that request was denied by Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR), which is the provincial ministry that helps coordinate Search and Rescue dispatch.

Without a helicopter, the members had to hike down to the area and rappel to the railway tracks, which CN Rail and police had to close to assist with the rescue and then one member had to be lowered down to Maverick, secure him and pulled back up.

“It is very unfortunate that we were denied the use of a helicopter,” Chute said. “That lack of helicopter put our volunteers at extreme risk unnecessarily.”

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Bowinn Ma, the Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, did not make herself available for an interview on Thursday.

Squamish Search and Rescue must also cover the cost of the rescue as EMCR will not.

“We’re happy to do that,” Chute said. “We’re just disappointed that we have to do that in this case.”

He said the fear is that an owner will try and rescue their pet themselves and that can put them in danger.

“We didn’t want the public to try and perform this technical rescue without us,” Chute added.

“It’s extremely dangerous. We’re all dog owners, we’re all dog lovers, and we understand the relationship people have with their pets. But I think it’s vitally important that if a dog is in this type of distress, particularly with the number of hazards, technical terrain, as well as very fast-moving technical water, that those rescues need to be done by the professional SAR teams within the province.”

Chute said the teams are highly skilled and trained and know the best approach.

“Although we’re volunteers, this is what we do professionally and we have the resources, we have the equipment, we have the training, we have the backup plans,” he added.

“We have all of the systems in place to perform these rescues. So our biggest fear is that somebody’s a dog owner or somebody from the public who may have some experience will try and effect this rescue on their own.”

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Chute said the approval for a helicopter eventually did come through but it was after the rescue was complete.

“We’re extremely disappointed in the fact that we were denied a helicopter,” he added.

“Not only would it have affected this rescue a lot quicker, but it would have been a lot safer for our volunteers to do so, and we would have been able to bring this dog home hours before we did.

“The delay in getting an approval for a helicopter, the approval came in after the rescue was complete. It’s just unacceptable in our minds.”

Messer said the gratitude they feel towards Search and Rescue members is “indescribable.”

“I thought for hours that we lost Maverick,” he said. “And you know, he’s one year old. We only had him for a year and we just got married. And to have that tragedy would have been — I don’t know how I would even handle that.”

Messer said they need to have professionals who know what they’re doing with the technical knowledge and safety procedures.

“Like, if we were to do it we’d be putting our lives in danger in addition to that,” Messer said.

“We owe everything to Search and Rescue.”