BUNGLING BEASTS :Police dogs can't sniff out dead bodies

Trinidad and Tobago Express ^ | June 17th 2005 | Richard Charan and Darryl Heeralal

[MRMEAN]

 FULL STORY

BUNGLING BEASTS

Police dogs can't sniff out dead bodies

Richard Charan and Darryl Heeralal

Friday, June 17th 2005

They might be doing a good job sniffing out illegal drugs but these dogs from the police canine unit are incapable of finding dead bodies.

Police tracker dogs are having trouble finding dead bodies and chasing murder suspects, even after searching areas where the bodies were later found.

The problem is homicide officers are using dogs trained to find drugs and not people to do the job, it was learned yesterday.

On every occasion that the animals were used in homicides they have found nothing, it was pointed out.

Embarrassed officers have made several requests to import cadaver-hunting dogs into the country, but they have been ignored by the police executive, the Daily Express was told.

On at least four occasions this year, dogs from the Canine Section of the Police Service have been used to track the scent of murdered people but failed to find their corpses.

In the cases of murdered schoolgirl Radha Pixie Lakhan and Ian Colin Ruiz, their bones were found weeks later, only after suspects led police to the location.

Locations, it turned out, that were previously covered by police dogs which failed to sniff out anything.

Homicide officers are concerned over the situation. They said tracker dogs were once an effective tool in finding fleeing suspects, decomposing bodies, and evidence linking suspects to crimes.

"It's like taking a pompek into the forest to look for agouti.

"My pot hound could do a better job right now," a senior homicide officer said.

Officers of the Canine Unit have defended their dogs, trained only to sniff out illegal drugs and for duties such as chasing, attacking and crowd control.

The Daily Express was told that while bomb sniffing dogs will join the police service by year's end, several requests for cadaver dogs have been met with silence.

Cadaver dogs are trained to follow the scent of bodies and body parts. Their absence is said to be a serious shortcoming in the service.

Police Commissioner Trevor Paul could not be contacted by telephone yesterday and the Police Service's public relations officer Ann-Marie Grant said she could only comment after researching the matter.

There are 45 dogs in the Canine Unit based at Point Fortin, Ste Madeleine, Chaguaramas and Caroni, it was learned.

The animals, Belgian and German Shepherds, are not trained to pick up human scent, but have been successful at finding stashes of cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

Lack of dogs capable of tracking down dead bodies was said to have been a setback in a number of recent cases.

A few examples at right:

- Pixie Lakhan, of Spring Trace, Siparia, went missing on March 22. Police dogs were called in nine days later. The canines were given an unwashed pair of jeans belonging to Pixie from which the dogs were expected to pick up a scent. The dog was set loose at the spot Pixie was last seen alive by friends of her relatives. The animals sniffed around for a minute and ran back to Pixie's home, a quarter mile away. Pixie's bones were found less than 100 feet from where she was last seen, three weeks later.

- Bhola Persad Sookram, 46, vanished from his home at Mendez Village, Siparia on May 12. Two days later, police dogs searched the surrounding forest but but did not pick up a trail. Five days later, one mile from home, relatives and friends who started their own search, found the man's decomposing body in a river.

- Police Constable Omah Maharaj was murdered on the night of May 6, when he and another officer responded to a robbery call at the Piarco Airport bond. He was shot and burnt when a grenade was tossed into the police car, during a shoot out with the thieves.

Two suspects were killed but a third escaped, leaving behind a jersey when he climbed a fence to escape. Within hours, police dogs were called in, but according to a senior officer on the scene that night "the tracker dogs were given the jersey to smell to pick up a trail. But the dog just went round around in a circle and that was it".

- Ian Colin Ruiz, 30, vanished after leaving the home of his estranged wife in Williamsville on May 8, Mothers Day,

His car was found abandoned in Freeport the following day, and the bloodhounds called in to search the area twice. Nothing was found but last Tuesday, murder suspects led police to Ruiz's skeletal remains. The body was found less than 100 feet from where his car was left, lying between sugarcane furrows. It was a also an area covered by tracker dogs.

[pepperhead]

Maybe we should get these dog addicted to dead bodies.

[mmercier]

Dogs have jobs like people. If you use a cadaver sniffer to locate a pile of heroin you will watch the dog fail, and vice versa. This only demonstrates the ignorance of the handlers, not the dogs.

These mutts are specificilly trained, because the officers think they are just sniffing machines only shows the ignorance of the one holding the leash, not the mutt.

A cadaver dog will locate carrion within a mile of where you drop it. A coke sniffer will do the same with cocaine. Neither mutt is a substitute for the other.

My mutts can sniff out an oreo from the next county, but nothing more. Don't blame me, my mother "trained" them.

[jimboster]

If you were sniffing dope all the time, you wouldn't have any interest in finding any dead bodies.

[malia]

Doesn't any one remember OKC, 9/11, earthquake rescues, and, I believe, a dog found a body in the water. Dogs are used for rescue. Live and dead rescues. I was living in Bellevue WA when OKC happened and a local team flew out to OK with their Aussie - if you think back the fireman and his Blue Merle, Australian Shepherd - Aussie to us proud owners, was featured all over America.

Dogs are very sensitive rescuers - if they find too many dead bodies they actually get depressed and their trainer/owners have to stage a fake live rescue.

I wondered why a dog was not used in Jessica's case.

Personally, dogs should be used at airports - at check in, at the gate, in the baggage area and a last sniff down the isles.

As you can tell - I did not like this article.

[purpleland]

Australian Shepards are easily trained, great working and watch dogs as well as loyal family pets, are trustworthy around other animals - especially horses, and gentle with children. I cannot think of a better dog.

Three cheers for the Aussie Shepards!

(In loving memory of our "Snowman", white Aussie shepard)

[malia]

And in loving memory to ours - Cinder a Tri, Sage, in honor of Osage Indians, and Cowboy both Blue Merles.

[The Last Rebel]

I've been on a LOT of body searches from murders, missing persons and drowning victims. The dogs are WORTHLESS, and to tell you the truth, after seeing all this and hunting with some of the best hounds (at the time) in the southeast and watching them make mistakes, I SERIOUSLY doubt the effectiveness of drug dogs.

Cadaver dogs? A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. PERIOD.


TLR

[alpha-8-25-02]

I HAVE RAISED GSP'S FOR 30 PLUS YEARS AND BUILT MANY A CANNINE FACILITY FOR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.

MY DOGS ARE OR HAVE BEEN S1-S3.

THE DOGS WORK ON DRIVE AND IF ARE NOT TAUGHT TO FIND BODIES THEY WILL NOT.

CLEAR CASE OF LOCAL POLICE BEING ENEPT.

GODSPEED!

[sinkspur]

You don't know what the hell you're talking about.

[bvw]

Yet Court-TV-mindlocked-jurors convicted David Westerfield, at least in part because of the dogs.

[bvw]

I like your idea.

[bvw]

Well, the Great Omnisentient sinkspur, obviously knows better, eh?

[Polybius]

A cadaver dog will locate carrion within a mile of where you drop it. A coke sniffer will do the same with cocaine.

And a Monica sniffer will.........

[purpleland]

"And in loving memory to ours - Cinder a Tri, Sage, in honor of Osage Indians, and Cowboy both Blue Merles."

There was a time when one went to horseshows and see an Aussie Shepard in the back of every pickup hauling a trailer.

Thanks for sharing the "loving memory."

[The Last Rebel]

Pleas give more than a smart ass comment if you want to be taken seriously.

TLR

[sinkspur]

OK. You really don't know what you're talking about if you think drug and cadaver dogs are not effective.

[The Last Rebel]

Okay, I was talking about in my experience, okay. I find it odd that drug dogs (ex-pound mutts at that) ALWAYS find something, but that wouldn't be too hard to believe since it's right in front of them. I can deal with that, just seems like NO OTHER DOG in the world can "find" stuff 100% of the time. Bet it would make the conviction rates drop if it did.........HHMMMMMM.

Anyway, my real post was about cadaver dogs. Drove many a one around in a boat looking for a drowning victim. Many of my other fellow officers in our department have also. Guess what. I don't know of anyone that has been found by one after 10 years on the job.

Always an excuse about it.
Water is too deep, too shallow, too fast flowing, too slow flowing, too many "false indicators", too many people around, too hungry, too thirsty, too much time elapsed, Buried too deep, etc. Of course they come out there with the cadaver dogs saying they could find Jimmy Hoffa, but to no avail.

Now your dog may be able to find anything on earth, if you say so fine, I can't dispute you, but my experience is is it a waste of time.


TLR

[ApplegateRanch]

This only demonstrates the ignorance of the handlers, not the dogs.

My mutts can sniff out an oreo from the next county, but nothing more. Don't blame me, my mother "trained" them.

Dead straight. They do what they are taught, building on instinct.

I had one that was deadly when it came to zeroing in on ripe quince, opening doors if necessary. It set my teeth on edge watching her chomp them.

To add variety to their diets, they also taught each other how to safely pick blackberries, since I was too slow passing them out on hikes.

Most of them would do a decent job of herding, and two or three could even find a stray sheep, if the occasion called for it.

Alas, repairing fences, retrieving downed birds, or pointing on gold nuggets in the creek was not in their repertoire...but I didn't blame them for those shortcomings.