Australian Dog of the Year ARAS (All Rescues Are Special) Medal Winner Bear featured on WIN News Sunshine Coast
Story Aired – 4 February 2025
Story Transcript:
From the dog no one wanted to a local hero. He’s just won another award. He’s won awards from Italy and Vietnam and the UK but this time it’s an Australian award and we’re very happy for him to be recognised.
Bear has been named by Puppy Tales as a Dog of the Year in the Alt Rescues A Special category. So the Australian Dog of the Year award started in 2020. We know what kind of year that was in and we started looking at the great way dogs would support us through lockdown and what was an emotionally tough time for many people.
After being surrendered by multiple families, Bear now spends his days saving koalas. When a fire happens or even just a koala is hit on the road, we really need to find those animals as quickly as possible and so Bear comes to help us do that. And it’s not Bear’s first time in the spotlight, first rising to prominence during the 2019 Black Summer bushfires.
Bear was deployed for about six months and went basically wherever he was needed. His job was to find koala that had survived the fire. Puppy Tales hopes his win in this brand new category proves rescue dogs do hold a vital place in society.
We want to celebrate that a rescue dog is no different to another dog. They’re not broken, they’re not damaged, they can be amazing.
Perri Mola, WIN News