UVALDE, Texas — Therapy dogs from Florida have joined teams from across the U.S. in flying to Uvalde, Texas, in hopes of bringing some comfort to the community mourning the loss of 19 kids and two teachers killed in a mass shooting last week.
Six teams of certified handlers and dogs — Tarik, Exon, Axel, Zodiac, Murphy and Macy — were sent to Robb Elementary School by a non-profit organization called Crisis Response Canines, according to a report by NPR.
Macy's handler Bear Berman spoke to news station WSVN about the significance of their work after flying from Orlando to meet the other therapy dog teams in Texas.
“There are so many people that are touched by this horrible event that may not even realize it yet. They still may be in shock, and it’s not really going to come to mind what really lays ahead of them until they decompress enough to mentally grasp it,” Berman told the news station.
He explained that the dogs' support can actually provide some medical benefits.
“A lot of times, they don’t realize the stress they’re holding, and that interaction with the dog has been medically proven to lower blood pressure and cause the body to release oxytocin, which is a calming hormone," Berman told WSVN. “Most people, when a dog walks in the room, they smile."
According to the organization's website, the K9 teams are trained and certified to support those in crisis environments like mass shootings, large-scale accidents, terrorism and natural disasters.
The Crisis Response Canines have, according to NPR, provided support after more than a dozen mass shootings across the U.S., including those at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oxford High School in Michigan and, just last month, the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
