Rick Mercer, centre, with members of the B.C. Search Dog Association and Kamloops Search and rescue rope team, including Mike Ritcey to Mercer's right.
Image Credit: Contributed
September 26, 2016 - 6:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - It’s not every day you lower a Canadian celebrity over a cliff with a dog, but Saturday the Kamloops Search and Rescue rope team did just that.
Comedian and TV personality Rick Mercer spent Saturday, Sept. 24 with the members of the B.C. Search Dog Association and the search and rescue volunteers at Roche Lake to shoot a segment for an upcoming episode of TV show the Rick Mercer Report.
Mike Ritcey with both Kamloops Search and Rescue and the Search Dog Association says as part of the day the rope team lowered Mercer with a dog down a cliff.
“He’s a pretty solid guy,” Ritcey says. “His crew was just unbelievable.”
The Search Dog Association was at Roche Lake for a few days training with some of the dogs and reviewing some puppies to see if they would be good future search dogs.
“All these dogs are up for validation to see if they make the team,” Ritcey says.
Ritcey says he pitched the idea for Mercer to come out and cover the validation event for his show months ago. Mercer liked the pitch and came out for the day to shoot footage. It’s likely to air in late October or early November on CBC TV.
“He was just getting a feel for a broad range of things we do with the search dogs,” Ritcey says. “He was really impressed with the amount of training done with them.”
At the same time, the teams were impressed with the Toronto-based comedian.
“He’s pretty funny on TV, but I had no idea,” Ritcey says. “He’s sharp, fast, really witty.”
Ritcey is hopeful the exposure will drum up more interest in the B.C. Search Dog Association.
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