North Paw K9 Search and Recovery

North Paw K9 Search and Recovery is a veteran owned 501c3 nonprofit organization, established in 2016. North Paw is a team of highly trained search, detection and recovery volunteers and their canines (K9s) that works with law enforcement agencies to search for and recover lost individuals in primarily urban settings, within Anchorage, but also go statewide.

Often these lost individuals are older adults with Alzheimer’s or dementia, vulnerable Alaskans and children with cognitive impairment. North Paw helps close the resource gap between law enforcement and families with lost loved ones. Alaska has one of the highest rates in the US for unsolved cases involving missing or slain Indigenous men and women. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one of six people living with Alzheimer’s go missing at some point. Nearly 50 percent of children and adults with autism attempt to or successfully elope.

Not only is North Paw called on for missing persons, but they are also called for cold cases and for aiding in locating evidence in cases as requested by law enforcement. Only a very small percentage of dogs (and their human partners) meet the specific requirements for urban search and rescue. These specialized resources are provided by North Paw, an all-volunteer team, at no cost to requesting agencies. North Paw has been deployed by the FBI, Alaska State Troopers and Anchorage Police.

All team members are 100 percent volunteer on call 24/7/365. Team members are committed to be ready at anytime day or night every day of the year to respond to an emergency search for all citizens in the Anchorage area and other locations statewide. All equipment, training/certification expenses and other expenses are solely paid by the very dedicated team members and public donations.