How German Shepherd’s natural talents created opportunities
Bernadine Beyale didn’t plan on going into K-9 search and rescue, but after she brought her German Shepherd Trigger home over seven years ago, she realized it was something the dog was born to do.
Trigger’s breeder suggested he go through some obedience training classes, and once Beyale took him there, their instructor, who also taught search and rescue training, suggested he do further, specialized training. Beyale said he caught on pretty quickly.
“… It was pretty much him sitting there as a puppy looking at me like ‘Hey, I really enjoy this work, this is what I want to do, are you in with me or are you out?’ That’s the day that changed my life because I decided to go into search and rescue because of him,” Beyale said in an interview with the Sun.
At this point, Trigger had undergone months of training, so it was Beyale’s turn to catch up.
STARTING TO SEARCH
Once she completed her training, Beyale (and Trigger) joined a State of New Mexico search and rescue team. In New Mexico, when someone goes missing, the New Mexico State Police reach out to rescue teams in the area and whoever is available is deployed to a search location. If no one in the area is available the NMSP broadens their search area for a team who can help.
After a couple years of working with the NMSP and the state, Beyale’s life changed again when she attended a National Night Out event. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live.
While she was standing at her search and rescue team’s booth at the event, Beyale was approached by an elderly couple who told her that their son had been missing for six months.
The couple said they hadn’t been getting much help from the local police, and that they’d been searching for their son on their own.
Beyale couldn’t believe this elderly couple was out there in unsafe terrain all by themselves. She asked her captain if she could help them, and he reminded her of the limitations they faced.
“He said ‘Well, the Navajo Police would have to call the state police to allow us to go out and help them,’” Beyale said. “And I already knew that wasn’t going to happen, and so I was like, ‘Well, that’s going to be a roadblock for us because I know they’re not going to do that.’”
So, Beyale decided to help the couple not as a member of her search and rescue team, but as a community member.
After multiple weeks of searching in the wrong area, Beyale received a tip that led her to an area south of Shiprock, New Mexico, and after a six-hour search, they found the missing man. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alive.
NEW CHANCES
But this chance encounter led to bigger opportunities for Beyale. The couple told some friends about her. Soon, she was getting enough calls that she decided to start a 501(c)(3).
Beyale started 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in 2022.
In the two years since, Beyale and her group of certified team members and volunteers have been very busy.
They received 75 calls for help in 2023. Of those 75 calls, 34 of them turned into actual searches.
Three of those 34 searches turned into successes. For Beyale, a successful search happens when a person is found either dead or alive, or they find someone’s personal belongings.
Beyale said her organization primarily focuses on the Navajo Nation, because that’s where the most help is needed. Forty-five people are currently listed on the FBI’s “Indian Country Cases” webpage, which asks for the public’s assistance on the multitude of missing persons cases involving Indigenous people. Beyale is based in Farmington, but 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue has helped families all over Arizona and New Mexico. The farthest they’ve ever traveled for a search was Browning, Montana, where a four-year-old girl from the Blackfeet Nation had gone missing.
“It’s just really hard for me to say no to anyone. If we’re available, we’ve just been helping everybody that we can,” Beyale said.
WORKING WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
While law enforcement agencies often get tied up in red tape and restrictions, as an independent organization, Beyale is able to help almost whenever someone needs her and her team.
“I’m not really tied to anyone, I don’t really have to wait for somebody to tell me to go out, I don’t have to call anyone to say ‘Hey, I’ve been requested in this area.’ We’re very independent, so when a family needs me, and if I’m available, I will head out there and help them,” Beyale said.
One difference between Beyale’s work with 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue and the state search and rescue team is the response time.
“Someone reported someone missing right away, and we were called out right away,” Beyale explained. “There was no pointing fingers of ‘You do it’ or ‘You do it.’ But with this, going into tribal land, and educating, there’s still a lot of families out there that are being told ‘Hey, you’ve got to wait 24 hours before you report someone missing.’”
Beyale’s work has led to her forming relationships with law enforcement. Because of these relationships, she often serves as a liaison between the families of missing people and law enforcement.
“A big piece of it is the communication. We’re doing a lot of work and trying to bridge this communication gap between law enforcement and the FBI and the [Bureau of Indian Affairs] and these families because they’re just not communicating with each other,” Beyale explained. “Us not being at an authority level, it seems families are more comfortable talking to us, giving us more information.”
With this newer working relationship, Beyale is able to check in with the law enforcement officers she knows and see if they recognize a name from a case they’re working on.
“So if they do tell me, ‘Hey, yeah we did find something, we’re investigating this,’ I want to do my part in helping them too, so if it’s a very vital investigation I don’t want to tread on any part of that investigation myself, so I’ll hold off on it and tell them to let me know when they’re done and I go in and do my part,” Beyale said.
HOW TO SUPPORT 4 CORNERS K-9 SEARCH AND RESCUE
As a smaller, still fairly new nonprofit, Beyale said 4 Corners Search and Rescue does not have a steady stream of income. During the organization’s first year most of the funding came out of her own pocket, and that’s still true today.
Beyale said they have received donations from people in the community, but without a grant writer the income is minimal.
This is not Beyale’s full-time job. During the weekdays she works for a purchasing and accounts payable department. She said having a grant writer would allow her to work in rescue full-time.
Another item on Beyale’s wish list is more volunteers. In order to help with searches, a person must be certified in search and rescue. If they’re not, a volunteer can only help by providing food or staying back with the families; they cannot legally go on the searches.
Certified team members are required to complete their FEMA 100/200, pass the NASAR SARTECH III Certification, complete a equipment/pack checklist, complete additional training in radio communications, lost person behavior, first aid, maps and compass, GPS/Navigation, search theory, Incident command, crime scene preservation, tracking, working with K-9’s, cultural sensitivity and survival skills.
One of 4 Corners Search and Rescue’s volunteers is currently working on getting certified so she can join the searches soon. Valya Cisco joined the organization in March 2022. She said she wanted to join 4 Corners Search and Rescue after her own sister went missing in June 2017. Her sister’s partial remains were found four months after she disappeared in October 2017.
“After going through the ordeal of that, I didn’t want other families going through the same thing that my family went through, searching for their loved ones on their own, because it does take a toll on you emotionally and physically,” Cisco said.
In talking about the organization, Cisco took time to praise Beyale and her leadership.
“4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue is a very strong team, and it’s because of all the other team members, but most importantly it’s because of the support Bernadine offers us. She’s there for each and every one of us and she guides us to become better people. She’s always uplifts us and gives us guidance on how to be there for families, and she always checks in with us to see where we are emotionally because of the work that we do,” she said.
To donate to 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue, visit their website at 4ck9sar.com. Besides donating funds to help support the organization’s efforts, people can also donate to Trigger’s cancer care fund.
Trigger was recently diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. He underwent surgery in Colorado during the first week of January. Veterinarian medical bills are expensive though, so Beyale is asking for donations as her dog continues this fight.
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
