Comfort Dogs Travel to Florida in the Wake of Mass Shooting

The Lutheran Church Charity K-9s have been deployed to countless tragedies. 

And now they are in Parkland, Florida to try to comfort survivors of another mass shooting that left 17 dead on Wednesday, February 14.

In the wake of indescribable tragedy, a Golden Retriever named Jake is with the students of Stoneman Douglas High School, ready to put his head on laps and lick tears off cheeks.

The Lutheran Church Charities K-9s (LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs) are used to traveling to tragedy. They were in Las Vegas in October after the awful shooting during a country music show; they were in Orlando two years ago after the Pulse nightclub shooting. They went to Sandy Hook, Connecticut after the elementary school shooting and Boston after the bombing. The dogs traveled to New York after Hurricane Sandy, and to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

 

The Comfort Dog Ministry was launched in 2008 and their trained Golden Retrievers, a team of over 130 based all over the country, are deployed to where they are needed most to do what they do best: heal. It is scientifically proven that petting a dog helps lower anxiety levels and blood pressure and these dogs simply make themselves available for whatever the victims need.

The dogs chosen to go to south Florida include Chloe, Hannah, Jacob, Mahlah, Ruthie, Shiloh, and Tobias.

There they met first responders and law enforcement.

And then went to see some Stoneman Douglas High School students who are still in complete shock that one of their classmates could cause so much destruction.

Everyone is appreciative to have something else to pay attention to and give them a break from mourning.

And while we will never truly know why these things happen, there is something about a dog that makes us remember the good in the world.

Nikolas Cruz, a former student of Stoneman Douglas High School, walked into the halls on Valentine's Day, Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2018. He pulled a semiautomatic weapon out of his backpack and started shooting. By the time police found him later walking down a nearby residential street, 17 people were dead, including fellow students, teachers, and staff.

It is now considered the deadliest school shootings in history.

What do you think of the dogs traveling to Florida? Tell us in the comments below. 

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