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Trauma dog comforts classmates of murdered B.C. teen

posted by Stephanie.Wilding

Nicki Thomas
Staff Reporter

In the days after Laura Szendrei was fatally beaten in broad daylight in a busy local park, citizens of the Vancouver suburb of Delta struggled with the unthinkable.

On Monday night, the teen’s parents, friends and classmates, her teachers and the town’s mayor all gathered at Burnsview Secondary School for an update from police.

But something unexpected happened.

Sitting in the gym bleachers, about 250 community members watched as Kim Gramlich, a victim services coordinator with the Delta police, crossed the floor with a 2½-year-old yellow lab named Caber.

Nearly a third of the room broke down in tears.

“I think he really just gave people permission to fully express and feel what they were already feeling, what was probably just under the surface,” Gramlich told the Star on Friday.

Caber is the first of his kind on a Canadian police force — a canine assistance intervention dog, chosen for his comforting and unflappable nature to work with the grief-stricken. He’s new to the force — his specialized training just ended last Sunday — and his first job was a big one.

Szendrei, 15, was killed last Saturday in Mackie Park as people nearby whiled away the sunny afternoon. Two friends on their way to meet the petite, pretty teen heard her scream. Minutes later they found her badly beaten on a wooded trail.

She died in hospital of her injuries the next day and was laid to rest Wednesday.

Delta was shaken to its core. The teen’s family and friends are devastated. If ever a community needed grief counselling, it’s this one.

On Tuesday, Gramlich brought Caber back to Burnsview, which Szendrei attended as a Grade 10 French immersion student, and took Caber around to Szendrei’s classes. There the students gathered on the floor with the preternaturally calm dog, talking to him, giving him high fives and stroking his golden fur.

“It’s very cathartic to pet a dog,” explained Gramlich. “Dogs are unconditional in their affection and they’re completely non-judgmental.”

Trauma dogs possess both those qualities. But they have something else too.

“I like to think of these dogs as being empaths,” said Gail Ferrier of Pacific Assistance Dog Society, where Caber was bred and trained. “They absorb the pain, the grief, the sorrow, and they know intuitively, almost, who to approach. They’ll walk into a room and they’ll go to the person who really needs them, although it may not seem evident to everyone else.”

Caber was trained to work with people with physical and hearing disabilities. He can open doors and push elevator buttons. But his empathy isn’t something that’s bred or trained, Ferrier said.

While there’s no scientific proof, a “much suspected” theory, she said, is that the dogs can smell the pheromones in human tears.

Ferrier hopes more Canadian police forces follow Delta’s lead and take on trauma dogs, something several U.S. forces have already done.

Gramlich said it was a “really remarkable week” working with Szendrei’s classmates. However, she and Caber won’t return immediately as school officials are trying to restore a sense of normalcy at Burnsview.

The community continues to deal with its grief, she said. A public memorial was held Friday and a candlelight vigil is planned for Saturday night.

Police have received more than 150 tips in the case, and investigators still hope to hear from more people who were in the park that day.

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