A group of canines specifically trained to comfort victims of traumatic events nationwide traveled to Lewiston, Maine to provide some much-needed support to those affected by Wednesday’s mass shooting.
Crisis Response Canines (CRC) landed in Lewiston Saturday, where they interacted with “several of those directly impacted” by the shooting that claimed the lives of 18 people, CRC wrote on Facebook.
“Our CRC teams continue to work via the Incident Command with first responders, healthcare, and community members directly involved with the event,” the organization said. “Please keep all those impacted by these events in your thoughts and prayers.”
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CRC is a non-profit organization that certifies, trains and deploys certified Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and Animal Assisted Crisis Response (AACR) teams to scenes following traumatic events, according to their website. The dogs have extensive training and certifications including a National Therapy Dog Certification.
Among the dogs was 3-year-old Zodiac, who had previous experience comforting a woman in Uvalde, Texas after the Robb Elementary School shooting, WCVB reported.
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“She said, ‘I don’t speak any English,’ and I said, ‘I don’t speak any Spanish.’ And the next thing you know, she’s crying on his head, hugging me, crying in my arms, and we couldn’t even speak each other’s language,” Graziano, Zodiac’s handler, told the outlet. “It just makes it a moment in their life that they, just, it’s that one moment of happiness and joy instead of everything just being so heavy and sad and hard.”
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CRC has also provided support to those impacted by The Covenant School Shooting in Nashville, the Michigan State University shooting and the Palmer Chocolate Factory explosion in West Reading, Pennsylvania.
The pups will visit first responders, attend vigils and public community events until Wednesday, WCVB reported. More information about CRC can be found online.
