Comfort Dogs Sent to Uvalde to Offer Support Following Texas School Shooting

Photo: Lutheran Church Charities

After tragedy struck on Wednesday in Uvalde, Texas, where21 people were killed in a mass shootingat Robb Elementary School, several comfort dogs were sent to the area to support survivors and first responders.

The dogs, ages three to nine, arrived in Uvalde less than 24 hours after Tuesday’s shooting, traveling from Austin, Texas; Wichita Falls, Texas; Houston, Texas; Plano, Texas; Kingfisher, Oklahoma; and Fort Collins, Colorado.

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PHOTO: Lutheran Church CharitiesPHOTO: Lutheran Church Charities

“We just see a lot of shock, crying, [people who are] distraught, especially coming in the day after a mass shooting,” Bonnie Fear, LCCs' K-9 crisis response coordinator, toldGood Morning America. “People are not ready to process or listen or answer questions. So we just show up with the dogs.”

“We listen if they talk,” she added. “We’re silent. We let the dogs connect with people, and they can express their feelings at that time, and we’re not counselors, so we are just present, standing with them in their sorrow.”

Fear told the outlet that LCC plans to have the dogs attend the mass vigil in Uvalde and visit the community’s civic center, where they can connect with school staff and students, first responders, and families of the victims and survivors.

RELATED VIDEO: Community Members at Uvalde Civic Center are Greeted With Therapy Dogs

The organization has also provided canine support for past mass shootings, including the 2012shootingat Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, which left20 first-graders and six educatorsdead.

Tim Hetzner, LCC president and CEO, recalled the positive impact the program has had in the past.

“I remember one situation in Sandy Hook, four days after the shooting,” Hetzner toldGMA. “We were at a community center, and this couple was there with their young boy. … I had a dog named Howe at that time.”

Lutheran Church Charities

“Howe looked up at the boy, got up, walked over to the boy, rolled into his legs, and the boy came down on top of him,” he continued. “They just laid there. After about 10 minutes, the boy lifted up Howe’s ear and told him everything that happened in that classroom. Parents started crying because it was the first time the boy had talked in four days. First time and it was a dog.”

source: people.com