Page 52 - Wayne County

feel blessed to live in a community where so many people give of their time, resources, and talent to help others in need. It’s amazing to see the outpouring of love and support shown by this community when tragedy strikes one of our own. I recently met someone who is a shining example of that selfess dedication to helping others and felt compelled to share her story. Her name is Angela M. Batten.

Angela is a founding member of Dogs South K-9 Search and Rescue. They are a group of professional volunteers trained, and nationally certifed in search, rescue, and recovery by aiding law enforcement and emergency agencies in locating missing or lost persons in wilderness, disaster, urban and drowning situations. In speaking with her, I quickly realized that this is her “Higher Calling.” She is passionate, enthusiastic, and dedicated to helping grieving families locate missing loved ones. The amazing part of her story is that the majority of the work done by Dogs South is on a strictly volunteer basis. They are a nonproft and incur the costs associated with these searches.

The services Dogs South provides can only be requested by an offcial law enforcement or emergency management agency, the Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, or other appropriate agencies at the local, state, or federal level. Angela has coordinated and worked on over 300 search/rescue missions since beginning her journey in August 2000 and is routinely involved in 3-4 searches per month. She was an instrumental team member in working with New Orleans Emergency Management and the state of Louisiana Emergency management in the aftermath of Hur-ricane Katrina in Louisiana’s Lower Ninth Ward. She also helped organize the search for a missing American college student in the jungles of Zamora, Ecuador in November 2002. She spent 2 months working as a civilian contractor in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007 for the U.S. Army searching for the bodies of fallen soldiers to help bring closure to the families of those lost loved ones. While in the battlefeld her rescue group came under sniper gunfre and rocket assault. Angela’s work with Dogs South was also featured on a missing persons’ show on the A & E Network working in tandem with a psychic to make a recovery.

She is no stranger to high profle cases or dangerous conditions and works behind the scenes to do whatever it takes to help families bring closure when the loss of a loved one occurs. She does this with the help of her beloved canine companions. Her current dogs are “DeDe” (German Shepherd), “Cody” (Giant Schnauzer), “Taza” (German Shepherd). These are highly trained animals and take the mantra “Man’s Best Friend” to the next level. They are attentive, intuitive, and amazingly adept at sensing what us humans cannot see, hear, feel or smell. Their training begins as puppies and is exten-sive to say the least. You can easily see how much Angela loves these dogs. She spends enormous