Page 44 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2015

The Operational Canine and
K9 Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Initiative

Lee E. Palmer, DVM, MS, DACVECC; Richard Maricle, AAS, NRP;
Jo-Anne Brenner, BA, NREMT-1: K9 MEDIC

ABSTRACT
Background: Approximately 20% to 25% of trauma- The widespread use of dogs to assist humans has re-
related, prehospital fatalities in humans are due to sulted in the term “working dog” becoming a catch-
preventable deaths. Data are lacking, however, on the all phrase for any canine so trained. But each group of
nature and the prevalence of operational canine (OC) working dogs differs in the tasks it is trained to perform
prehospital deaths. It is plausible that OCs engaged in and the level of occupational hazard the dogs may be
high-threat operations are also at risk for suffering some subjected to; therefore, it is inappropriate to group all
type of preventable death. Tactical Combat Casualty working dogs under one broad title.
Care has significantly reduced human fatality rates on
the battlefield. Standardized guidelines specifically for Within the global community of working canines ex-
prehospital trauma care have not been developed for ists a distinct subpopulation that is asked to perform
the OC caregiver. An initiation has been approved by in high-threat or tactical environments where they con-
the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care to tinuously place themselves in the way of life-threatening
form a K9-Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) harm. For these dogs, OC and K9 are more befitting
working group to develop such guidelines. Significance: terms to distinguish this special group from the rest of
The intent of the K9-TECC initiative is to form best the pack and are used throughout this article to refer
practice recommendations for the civilian high-risk OC to canines operating in high-threat civilian and military
caregiver. These recommendations are to focus on inter- operations. Examples of OCs include military working
ventions that (1) eliminate the major causes of canine dogs (MWDs) or multipurpose canines (MPCs); K9s
out-of-hospital preventable deaths, (2) are easily learned that serve federal and local law enforcement (LE) and
and applied by any civilian first responder, and (2) mini- force protection agencies (e.g., police K9s, Transporta-
mize resource consumption. tion Security Administration, US Border Patrol); and
search-and-rescue (SAR) dogs. OCs do not volunteer to
Keywords: canine; trauma; preventable death; Tactical Emer- serve, yet they are some of the most faithful and depend-
gency Casualty Care; K9-TECC; guidelines able operators in the field. They undoubtedly perform
an invaluable service in today’s society and are owed a
tremendous debt of gratitude for their selfless service,
loyalty, and sacrifices.
Introduction
Over the past few decades, civilian Tactical Emergency The OC Throughout History
Medical Support (TEMS) and military Combat Casu-
alty Care for out-of-hospital, high-threat situations have As far back as the Roman Empire, K9s have been used
been transformed. Assessment procedures and rapid for combat operations throughout history. These an-
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deployment intervention, tactical medical response cient civilizations recognized how valuable the K9’s
training, and development of new out-of-hospital resus- keen sense of smell and deterring presence were. Over
citation strategies, pharmaceuticals, and other adjuncts, the centuries, the use of K9s in warfare continued to
have greatly enhanced the capability of first respond- grow and develop. Until World War I, Germany was the
ers and the medical care they provide. Despite continual dominant user of K9s and had the most experience with
progress in field medicine over the past 20 years, ad- training them for war. After the start of World War I,
vances in casualty care still remain deficient for one par- it did not take long for other countries, such as Great
ticular population of tactical operators: the operational Britain and France, to take the lead as they realized the
canine (OC). value of K9s for relaying messages and leading scout

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