09/03/2026
🐾🚁 A HUGE STEP FOR WORKING K-9s IN OUR REGION! 🚁🐾
The Church Hill Rescue Squad is extremely excited to see this incredible resource being put into place by Highlands!
Beginning September 3rd, Highlands will be equipped to provide emergency stabilization and air medical transport for eligible law enforcement, military, and search & rescue K-9s who become injured or ill in the line of duty.
For those of us who work alongside Search & Rescue K-9s, we understand just how important this is. These K-9s aren’t simply animals—they are highly trained members of our emergency response teams who go into difficult terrain, dangerous environments, and challenging situations to help save lives.
When a working K-9 is seriously injured or becomes ill, every minute matters. Distance, terrain, and access to emergency veterinary care can make a critical difference. This program provides handlers with another lifesaving option by allowing trained clinicians to stabilize eligible working K-9s and rapidly transport them to emergency veterinary care.
As an agency with our own Search & Rescue K-9 program, Church Hill Rescue Squad strongly supports this program and cannot express how thankful we are to Highlands for recognizing the importance of protecting the K-9s who serve our communities.
We also want to recognize the Greene County Sheriff’s Department for participating in the training that helped prepare for this program.
This is a HUGE WIN for working K-9 teams across our region! 🐕🦺❤️
Thank you, Highlands, for investing in the safety of the four-legged responders who stand beside us and serve our communities every day.
A new air medical service has been launched by the Highlands Emergency Air Rescue and Transport (HEART) in East Tennessee, giving injured or ill working K-9s access to emergency stabilization and air transport.
