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NC K9 E.R.T Handler Receives Bloodhound K9 Donation!

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The North Carolina K9 Emergency Response Team is excited to announce our newest member.   Meet “Faith”,  a four month old bloodhound puppy who was recently donated to K9 handler Teresa Cummings of Harmony, NC by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation.

The Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction is an organization founded by Don and Claudine Ryce upon the abduction and murder of their 9 year old son, Jimmy. Jimmy was abducted when he got off his school bus on September 11, 1995 and later murdered. His dismembered body was found encased in concrete three months later. Jimmy’s parents, Don and Claudine, vowed that their son’s death would not be meaningless and they put aside their pain and worked tirelessly to prevent a similar tragedy from happening to another child. The Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction was born from this tragedy and one of their strongest charges was to raise funds to obtain bloodhounds for law enforcement.

The Ryces have always stated that if a bloodhound was available that fateful day, it’s possible that Jimmy could have been found. In the past 20 years, The Jimmy Ryce Center has donated more than 500 bloodhounds to law enforcement agencies. All donations to the Jimmy Ryce Center allow for properly and well-trained AKC bloodhound puppies to be placed with law enforcement.

The purpose of the North Carolina K9 Emergency Response Team is to furnish highly trained volunteer search dog teams for search and rescue. N.C. K9 E.R.T. is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation serving the State of North Carolina and surrounding areas. NC K9 E.R.T trains and promotes the working dog for search mission, and supports national recognized evaluations for search dogs. NC K9 E.R.T. provides highly skilled search teams 24 hours a day, responds to requests from Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, Fire Departments or other official requesting agencies, during natural or manmade disasters, drownings, and lost or missing persons in urban and wilderness settings at no cost to the requesting agency. In addition, NC K9 E.R.T. works to promote understanding and public awareness of the role of search dogs and to further the public knowledge, interest and use of search and rescue trained dogs through public demonstrations and lectures to state and local agencies, schools, civic organizations, retirement and rest homes. All members are volunteers and are responsible for providing their own personal equipment as well as paying for all training costs and costs associated with responding to search calls. Contributions and donations are solicited to help defray the costs of team equipment, training and travel expenses.

(Pictures are available if requested or can be made for newspaper submission)
More information can be found at www.nck9ert.org and www.jimmyryce.org

Contact information:
Teresa Cummings
919-339-9049
thcummings@yadtel.net