April 6, 2007
What has 36 legs, 12 badges and six fur coats? Answer: The Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC’s) 2007 K-9 Corps
graduating class.
Six dogs and their handlers graduated today from 12 weeks of
training to join 14 other teams in the FWC’s K-9 Corps. All the dogs
are so highly trained and motivated in tracking and wildlife
detection, they literally earn badges, and when they dig up
evidence, it’s admissible in court.
Since 1989, 36 FWC teams and nine out-of-state teams have graduated
from the program, and some dogs may remain in service 10 years (some
people say that’s 70 dog years).
FWC K-9s are not attack dogs. They are not trained in aggression.
Rather, they specialize in finding people and evidence in wilderness
areas and on the water. They have established a world-wide
reputation for finding lost hunters, trespassers and others in need
of contact with the “long nose of the law.”
The dogs have proved invaluable to FWC officers in detecting
illegally taken game, protected species and even lobsters. They have
found firearms, stashed in the woods by lawbreakers, and they can
even find drowning victims under water.
This year’s graduates include:
- FWC Officer Jeff Babauta and K-9 Mack, assigned to Leon County;
- FWC Officer Brandon Ennis and K-9 Biloxi, assigned to Dade County;
- FWC Officer Michael Guy and K-9 Jake, assigned to Bay County;
- FWC Officer Sarah Hahner and K-9 Sadie, assigned to Santa Rosa
County;
- FWC Officer Tom Hill and K-9 Jasmine, assigned to Monroe County; and
- FWC Officer Tim Miller and K-9 Patton, assigned to Indian River
County.
- The FWC handpicks its K-9s from dogs offered by donors.
Conservation agencies across the United States have modeled their
own K-9 corps after the FWC’s program.
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