In a
novel by Iris Johansen, she writes about Sarah and her Golden Lab,
Monty, who are hired by a 'Search and Rescue' group in Touson,
Arizona. Monty sniffs out odours to search persons in both man-made
and natural disasters. His keenness is superb ~ a willing and
dedicated work-mate with Sarah.
The
following article was written by Martha Irvine
and
published by The Associated Press.
Crime-Fighting Canines:
Key to Finding the
Missing and the Murdered
The
burly Labrador Retriever sticks out his wide snout to sniff the dirt
and dusty air. As he runs, he's clearly excited, yelping through the
high desert of California's Eastern Sierra region.
“Buster,
go find!” Paul Dostie commands. They are a team: the black Lab and
the retired police officer.
For
years, they have worked together to unlock mysteries ~ to find the
bodies of fighting men who fell long ago on foreign battle fields, or
of victims of unsolved crimes or disappearances. In all, Dostie says
Buster's alerts have aided in the recovery of about 200 people.
“He's one-in-a-million dog,” Dostie says, “but he's far from
the only dog doing this kind of work.”
Increasingly,
law enforcement investigators across the country and Canada are
putting their faith in dogs such as Buster to help find remains ~
bodies, bones and blood from the missing and the murdered.
Cadaver
dogs were used in searches after the terror attacks of Sept. 11,
2001...and to help find victims of natural disasters, such as
hurricane Katrina. More recently, these dogs have helped convict
some murder suspects, even when no body is found. Trainers and some
forensic scientists say the dogs can detect human residue that's been
left behind in a trunk, or on a blanket or tarp or a temporary grave
of some sort. In some cases, the dogs also help pinpoint areas where
air and soil can be tested with increased sophisticated detection
devices. Proving what these dogs know, isn't easy.
“If
only Buster could talk,” Dostie quips
as he
works his dog through a wide patch of scraggly brush,
about
80 kilometres east of Yosemite National Park.
Near
an old mine shaft, Buster eventually zeroes in on a spot, then stops
and barks with more urgency. “Show me, Buster!” Dostie shouts,
as Buster pokes his nose in the direction of a particular spot in the
dirt or at a rock...whatever has set off his nose. As a reward,
Dostie tosses Buster a blue rubber toy he's been holding behind his
back while the dog searches. “Good boy,” he says. This routine
has helped unearth the remains of everyone from crime victims to
missing Americans lost in WWII battles in Europe and on the South
Pacific island of Tarawa.
They
travel to former war zones with History Flight Inc., a non-profit
foundation whose mission includes finding the tens of thousands of
fallen American veterans whose bodies were never recovered. Among
others, Buster helped find Lt. Robert Fenstermacher, an Army Air
Corps pilot whose plane crashed in Belgium after being shot down in
1944. Last year, his family gathered as he was laid to rest, nearly
70 years later, in Arlington National Cemetery.
Handlers
and dogs often walk on foot, mile after mile to find a body. That
was how Deborah Palman, now a retired specialist with the Maine
Warden Service and her German Shepherd, Alex, found the body of a
Canadian woman named Maria Tanasichuk in 2003. Police later
determined that she'd been shot in the head execution-style by her
husband, David. “We had worked so long for so many days ~ a lot of
long, hard searches,” Palman says. Then during another long day,
trekking through a forest outside Miramichi, New Brunswick, Palman
recalls how Alex ran to her as if to say, “Hey, come look at this!
Follow me!” Palman pulled back some brush and saw green fabric,
and signs that a body was underneath. “My pulse must have shot up
over 200,” she says. That find was the break in the case that led
to David Tanasichuk's conviction.
Labs
and German Shepherds are the most common breeds used for cadaver
work. While humans, when alive have individual scents, chemical
reactions from decomposition are basically the same in every human,
though those reactions...and the scent...change over time, forensic
experts say.
Cadaver
dogs “are an incredible investigatory tool ~ no question about it,”
says Lawrence Kizilinsky, professor and chairman of the department of
sciences at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
“Certainly,” he says, “they can help uncover valuable evidence
in criminal cases ~ a body, bones or clothing.”
Like
most of the dogs, Buster started young, though Dostie concedes he
ignored the pudgy puppy when his wife brought him home 12 years ago.
She'd begged her husband to let her keep Buster ~ and then Dostie
started noticing what a good nose the dog had.
(Excerpts
from the original article)
Conversations About
Man's Best Friend
(Courtesy
of Sherrie)
Photo
of Lab talking to female mistress , both sitting on a snow-covered
bench:
If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability
to see yourself through my eyes. Only then, would you realize how
special you are to me.
Photo
of tired hound dog asleep in front of wood-burning fireplace:
Owner
says, “I can't think of anything that brings me closer to tears
than when my old dog...completely exhausted after a hard day in the
field...limps away from her nice spot in front of the fire and comes
over to where I'm sitting and puts her head in my lap...a paw over my
knee...and closes her eyes...and goes back to sleep. I don't know
what I've done to deserve that kind of friend.” (Translation
by Gene Hill)
Photo
of old man sitting on park bench cuddling two puppies sitting on his
lap, each with collar and leash:
“No
matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a
dog, makes you rich.”
(Quote by Louis Sabin).
Photo
of spaniel with large brown eyes laying at master's feet:
“Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul. (Quote
by Pythagoras)
Photo
of adorable puppy napping with head between huge paws:
Dogs...do not ruin their sleep worrying about how to keep the
objects they have, and to obtain the objects they have not. There is
nothing of value they have to bequeath except their love and their
faith. (Quote
by Eugene O'Neill)
Submitted by Merle Baird-Kerr...December 25, 2014
To comment about the uniqueness of dogs...email to:
No comments:
Post a Comment