The English Springer Spaniel aims to eradicate the wildlife crime
English springer spaniel Indy, the two-year-old search dog is helping to cut down the wildlife crimes. Dogs 4 Wildlife initially trained the dog as a Meat Detection dog.
She’s now been delivered to Mankwe Wildlife Reserve in South Africa. She lives there to indicate on cached bush meat and animal bones. Last year, a total of 451 rhinos were poached in South Africa.
The non-profit organization Dogs 4 Wildlife aims to provide both quality, highly trained dogs. Also they give specialized trainings for the development of anti-poaching canine units.
On the whole, their goal is to inspire and motivate the next generation of wildlife protectors, through effective education.
The founder of Dogs 4 Wildlife said:
“Indy, an English Springer Spaniel is currently 2 years old and now lives in the Mankwe Wildlife Reserve.
“Tasked with working in the reserve current Anti-Poaching K9 unit covering some 5000 hectares. Her role is to locate and indicate on cached bush meat / animal carcass hidden by the poachers.“
“Once she has located the recently hidden caches the units tracking dogs can then follow the scent left by the poachers to arrest them.
“Indy has a vital role to play in supporting Mankwe’s efforts in protecting their wildlife. The team at Dogs 4 Wildlife in the UK bred and trained Indy. Moreover, all of our dogs first start their journey there.”
Poaching efforts in Mankwe have tripled during the pandemic. Poaching is an easy option for survival as it is not a violation of law in South Africa.
In 2021, Mankwe suffered the loss of Reine and Maegen.
Deploying anti-poaching dogs and K9 units are a crucial part of conservation efforts in Africa.
Dogs 4 Wildlife is an organization with great experience and knowledge and dedicated animal lovers with a commitment to wildlife conservation. With 12 operational dogs across four Southern African countries, The Dogs 4 Wildlife K9’s help achieve up to a 75% reduction in poaching numbers.
