Pep's

The 2025 Frehel Fellowship is awarded to PEP’S for her exceptional service as a search and rescue dog, exemplifying the human-animal bond through her ability to locate missing persons across Switzerland.

Dear Pep's,

It is with deep emotion and immense respect that Noble Alliance names you recipient of the 2025 Frehel Fellowship Award. This award not only celebrates your skill and dedication as a search and rescue dog, but most of all, it recognizes the bond you share with your handler, Sabine Zuliani—a bond built on trust, shared purpose, and unwavering presence in the most critical moments of human need.

Each year in Switzerland, over 5,000 people are reported missing. These are hikers caught in a sudden storm, older adults with dementia who wander from home, children who vanish, and bikers injured far from help. Behind each number is a life at risk. Behind each rescue, a team working against time—and often, leading the way, a dog like you.

Pep's, your work is often invisible to the public eye, carried out in forests, mountains, and remote terrain. You track the scent of those who can no longer call for help. You respond before most even know there is a crisis. You find what no machine, no algorithm, no map can find. You are not looking for someone you know, and yet you search as if their life depended on you—because it does.

You do not do it alone. At your side is Sabine, whose deep care, training, and trust in you make each mission possible. Together, you form a team that embodies the best of what can happen when human and animal move forward with a shared mission: to save lives.

And the need for this work is growing in countries across the world. For instance, in the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds—a staggering 170,000 people each year. Many are never formally reported. Many are never found. But thanks to teams like yours, there is always a chance. A thread of hope. A silent, tireless effort happening in the background, often in the dark, in the rain, through fatigue and uncertainty.

The Frehel Fellowship is a recognition of what animals like you contribute to humanity and a reminder that the human-animal bond should stand as a universal value of humanity It is also a tribute to those who train, trust, and walk beside you in service of others.

Sabine and REDOG have shared with us the depth of your work and the light you bring to each mission. Their voices carry not only your story, but the story of every team that has ever gone out without hesitation to search for someone lost.

Dear PEP’S, in honoring you, we honor them all. You are a true heroine—not only for what you do, but for what you represent. You remind us of the power of partnership, of the dignity in service, and of the lives saved thanks to the determined presence of a dog on the trail.

With all our admiration and gratitude,

Noble Alliance Association

In Search of the Missing

PEP’S Journey

A Lifesaving Partnership

Since being paired with Sabine Zuliani in 2017, PEP’S has become an invaluable partner in the search for missing persons across Switzerland, particularly in challenging environments such as forests, mountains, and remote areas. Trained to locate individuals in urgent need of help, PEP’S stands ready to assist at a moment's notice, demonstrating the profound impact of the human-animal bond.

Dedication from Day One

From her early days, PEP’S exhibited remarkable determination and joy in her training. At just six months old, she began her formal training as a surface search dog, quickly mastering the crucial skill of identifying people who are often unconscious, injured, and in need of immediate rescue.

In 2021, PEP’S and Sabine achieved certification as a national search and rescue team after successfully passing REDOG’s national engagement test. Since then, PEP’S has been on call 24/7, always prepared to support emergency services in locating missing persons—whether by directly tracking scent or identifying personal items such as backpacks, walking sticks, or clothing that can provide essential clues in a search.

Because Hope Has Four Legs, Too

To date, PEP’S has participated in multiple official interventions across Switzerland, contributing to real-world search efforts and making a meaningful difference in moments of deep uncertainty.

In awarding PEP’S, we also seek to honor all the animals who dedicate their lives to search and rescue missions—helping to find missing persons in a challenge that affects communities across the globe. By embracing the power of the human-animal bond as a universal value of humanity, we have an opportunity to unlock unprecedented possibilities to make our world a better place for everyone.

Power in Action

24/7 Availability of PEP’S to intervene across Switzerland.

Real-life missions already completed by PEP’S in both Romandie and German-speaking Switzerland as of April 2025.

Months Old. The age at which PEP’S began her training to search for missing persons.

What Makes Search and Rescue Dogs so Essential in Emergencies?

Every year in Switzerland, approximately 5,000 people are reported missing. These disappearances span every corner of society—elderly individuals living with dementia or disorientation, hikers or mushroom foragers lost in sudden weather shifts, mountain bikers injured in remote terrain, and young people who run away. Many of these individuals find themselves in life-threatening situations, cut off from communication and far from help.

When such emergencies arise, the clock starts ticking. Search and rescue dog teams like that of PEP’S and her handler Sabine Zuliani are among the first to respond. Their work is swift, tireless, and often invisible to the public eye—but it saves lives. Trained to locate scent trails, signal human presence, and assist in the retrieval of vital personal belongings, dogs like PEP’S offer a unique and irreplaceable capability in the field.

This urgency isn’t unique to Switzerland. Globally, the scale of the issue underscores just how critical this work is. In the United Kingdom, for instance, data from the charity Missing People reveals that someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. That adds up to over 170,000 individuals reported missing each year, accounting for nearly 350,000 total incidents—as many go missing more than once.

Among these, approximately 96,000 are adults, and over 75,000 are children. Certain populations face even higher risks: “looked-after” children(those in care) are 20 times more likely to be reported missing than other children, often disappearing repeatedly and facing serious vulnerability each time.

And yet, even these numbers may not tell the full story. Due to differences in reporting practices and awareness, research suggests that up to 7 in 10 missing children may never be reported to police at all, leaving an alarming number of disappearances unrecorded and unresolved.

The need, then, is vast—and the role of canine search and rescue teams could not be more relevant. In many cases, they represent the only hope of finding someone alive. These dogs work in silence, covering vast and complex terrain in the dark, in storms, and under pressure. They do not know the name of the person they are searching for—but they follow their scent, tirelessly, until they are found.

Behind the Scenes