In Search of the Missing Read online

  The weeks moved on. Foreign bloodhound breeders were showing great interest in the pups. The phone kept ringing constantly, and e-mails were flying over and back from people who wanted to take a pup. They were all intent on coming to Ireland. We had to book accommodation for their visit and make sure that Badgershill Kennels was in tip-top condition. There was more fuss created over the litter of pups than there was about the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979! Bloodhound breeders from the US, Finland, Canada, England and Wales began to arrive to have a look at the pups. These are the elite, the golden circle, the people with clout. These well-established, very influential breeders and breed fanciers dictate everything in the bloodhound world (see the appendix).

  In one day alone, we parted with five of the pups – all five flew out together to Frankfurt. Then two went on to San Francisco, two went to Los Angeles and one to Helsinki. The house felt almost empty then as we were left with only two pups, Badgershill J. Swift, known as Weeman, and Badgershill S. Beckett, known as Byron. Then one day, a solicitor from Tipperary and his son came to look at the two remaining pups. They had been on the waiting list for two years, and had a choice between Byron and Weeman.

  Shortly after the pups were born, Belle had accidentally hurt one of the male pups. When the pups cried, Belle would pace up and down, but once, as she was anxiously pacing over and back, she stood on the foot of one of the males and clipped his nail. From then on, the pup was singled out by Áine for special attention, with plenty of tender loving care thrown in for good measure! Áine called him Weeman, because he was so little. She loved all the pups but had a real soft spot for Weeman. He won her over completely by constantly biting her ear lobe and licking her. On many occasions, I’d find the two of them asleep in bed, and I’d have to take him from her embrace and return him to his mother. Now, as Áine spoke to the solicitor and his son, she wasn’t so sure if she could let Weeman go. She wanted to keep him for herself. The son was sitting alone on the couch. Áine was impressed that he was so quiet. She saw Weeman looking at him. Dogs always take to quiet people because they don’t pose a threat. Weeman moved nearer to the boy, who picked him up. Áine said to herself: He’ll be all right there – okay, that feels right. And she let him go. Áine found out a few months later that the pup didn’t eat for two days after leaving her.

  Before ever giving birth, Belle had successfully passed her Novice Search Dog Test, which included a minimum of five trails, each three miles long over different types of terrain, such as roads, rivers, bogs and mountainside. All trails were at least twelve hours old and with different starting points, including a scent article, a motor vehicle and a dwelling house. While we know that Belle would make a great search dog, we have decided not to train her any further for now. Instead, we are guarding her like gold as part of our limited breeding programme for better search dogs.

  Despite all the demands of caring for and weaning the pups, we intend sometime soon to put Belle in pup again by the same sire – to do it all again one more time so as to produce more top-class search dogs to increase the success rate of search-and-rescue operations.

  Badgershill

  As Áine and I started Badgershill Kennels to promote the bloodhound as an excellent working show dog, we spend a lot of time training the dogs for active service, and so their mental and physical condition is vital. Unfortunately, when it comes to showing, judges and other show enthusiasts don’t appear to agree. According to one or two judges, bloodhounds as show dogs must be as big and heavy as possible. At a recent championship show, one breed specialist said our dogs needed to be much heavier and have more roll. When I explained that our dogs were primarily kept as working dogs, she stated that if we wanted to show dogs then we should keep them in ‘show’ condition, meaning far too heavy for work! It’s such a shame to hear remarks like this, as any working-dog enthusiast knows only too well that in addition to being unhealthy, a heavy, unfit dog is unable to work for long periods of time without tiring. Many of the call-outs Áine and I have been involved in with a bloodhound have lasted up to four days and longer, with the dog expected to work for many hours each day. On average, air-scenting dogs can cover an area of 120 miles during any eight-to-ten-hour working day, and they would be expected to cover this each day for the duration of the search. Trailing dogs, like our bloodhounds, cover eight to ten miles each hour, and more if allowed; this can continue, as with air-scenting dogs, for many days. Provided they have a definite starting point and an uncontaminated scent article, bloodhounds can locate missing persons much faster and more efficiently than air-scenting dogs. But working with bloodhounds can be exhausting for the handlers as they have to walk every step of the way and hold the dogs on lead, which can be very hard on the hands because of the speed at which bloodhounds move and the strength of the pull. Bloodhound handlers usually wear gloves, but they sometimes become so tired and sore that they have to hand the dog over to another handler. In some respects, working with air-scenting dogs is easier.

  When show judges examine a working bloodhound – and any dog from a working breed – they should keep in mind the dog’s primary function of work. Does the dog look capable of carrying out the job for which it is bred? Is the dog in a fit and work-like condition so as to effectively carry out its task? These are the important questions that show judges should ask. Too much emphasis is placed on beauty points, such as colouring, tail set, ear set and all those other issues brought into judging by people who have most probably never worked a mission-ready dog.

  Badgershill Kennels encourages the showing of dogs and continues to press for a balanced, informed and practical approach for assessing a working breed. Before passing judgement, judges should take the time and trouble to learn all they can about the field requirements of a working breed. As well as that, all show dogs from a working breed should have at least a basic working qualification of some sort before being bestowed with the title of show champion.

  Since the founding of SARDA in 1987, air-scenting dogs have been used more than any other dogs in search-and-rescue operations in Ireland. The same holds true for every other European country. Now, people are beginning to see the advantages of using bloodhounds instead, and this is one of the reasons why breeding is so important. Neil Powell recently bought a bloodhound-cross from Scotland and e-mailed me afterwards to say, ‘Bloodhounds appear to be the way to go!’ We offered him one of Belle’s litter but he had already made the purchase.

  Paddy Harkin, an Irish Search Dogs trainer in west Cork, now handles one of our bloodhounds, An Luan Caoimhe, known as Karla, who was originally bought by us from Sarah Hanford’s kennels and then passed on to Paddy. Karla is a daughter of a Marksbury bitch and a Czech dog with the show name Carson Ilvarus of Marksbury. She has many green stars to her credit, and holds the title An Luan Caoimhe Annual Champion 2009, which she won as a one-year-old. She is well on the way to becoming a great trailing search-and-rescue dog.

  Recently, many myths surrounding bloodhounds have been dispelled, thanks especially to MythBusters, the popular science programme on TV presented by special-effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. For instance, there is a myth that bloodhounds can easily lose a scent if a body enters water – a scenario often enacted in old, black-and-white detective films, where a fugitive’s only means of escape proves to be a river. In one episode of MythBusters, Adam Savage crossed a river to see if he could cause a trained bloodhound to lose his scent. The bloodhound found him without any bother. When part of Adam’s trail was sprayed with pepper, the bloodhound became confused, but only briefly. He soon rediscovered the track and quickly found Adam. Next, Adam washed himself and changed his clothes, and the bloodhound became overwhelmed by his strong scent at the place of washing. The trainer recognised this, and circled the bloodhound widely until it identified the escape trail, which allowed the dog to easily find Adam once again. In another episode, Adam took on the challenge of checking if a person can trick a trained bloodhound by travelling through an urban e
nvironment. During the experiment, the bloodhound became overwhelmed by the huge number of distracting smells in the city. Although the dog did not follow Adam’s trail, he did succeed in finding him after ninety minutes. The bloodhound handler concluded that a bloodhound experienced in working in cities would be likely to do much better.

  In the US, bloodhounds are held in high esteem. Belle’s half-sister works with the FBI as an evidence dog. She takes scent from the scene of a crime, and when the suspects are paraded she walks down along the line and indicates. Such an indication stands up as evidence in a US court of law.

  Unfortunately, because of all the different agencies in-volved in searches in Ireland, Lucy is usually only called out a week or two after a person is reported missing, almost as a last resort. What a waste, especially as to date she has six finds to her credit, all confirmed by the gardaí.

  The high-profile search for a woman in Waterford shows how our search-dog services fail to be utilised when needed. Shortly after the woman was reported missing in early October 2006, I received a call from the Waterford search team asking me to join the search. Having agreed to take part, I was told I would get another call soon to make arrangements. That call did not come until two weeks later, about thirty minutes after the body was found in the River Suir at Meagher’s Quay near Waterford city centre. I was then asked to bring down the dog to Waterford to backtrack from the car to the river. I refused to go, as Lucy should have been called in way before then. She could have tracked from the car to where the body was put into the water, and identified the driver of the car. They had waited until the body was found to call us up; until then, they had used springer dogs from Wales rather than our cadaver-trained dogs. The newspapers were full of the Welsh dogs, claiming that sources said they were the only dogs in the world capable of blood detection. This was rubbish. In other countries, local dogs are called in first, but in Ireland, unfortunately, dogs are usually not called in until very late in the search, by which time the scent has been contaminated.

  A similar situation arose when a search took place for a foreign national who was thought to have been murdered in a glen just a field away from our house in Knockraha. I knew the woods and surrounding areas inside out, as well as all the people living there, many of whom were relations of mine. We have trained our dogs in these woods every two weeks since 1983. Any one of our dogs could have combed the entire area efficiently in three or four hours. The authorities may say that there are underlying reasons for not using civilian dogs, but, at the end of the day, there are no rational reasons for not using Irish resources.

  In any search, the dogs should always be called in first while the scent is fresh and has not been contaminated. People should be used only as a second resort.

  Dog Tales and Sheep

  Pat Falvey is renowned for leading the first ever Irish expedition to reach the South Pole, and for climbing the highest peak on every continent. But few may know that he was once involved in the rescue of a sheep that was stranded on a fifty-foot-high ledge in Ballingeary. When Pat was summoned to the rescue by the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team, he phoned me to act as back-up. The farmer had already called in the Macroom fire brigade, but the ledge where the sheep was marooned proved way beyond their reach.

  We walked out with the farmer to the area. The land was boggy, with a hill of rock at the centre, on which the sheep was stuck. He stood there, trapped on a grassy, rocky ledge only two feet in width. One slip, one turn, and he was gone. In such situations, rescuers will always try to lower animals down to safety instead of hoisting them upwards. Common sense tells us it’s the practical way to go. It’s easier and safer. Taking stranded animals up would be impracticable as they would have to be brought back down to ground level again.

  Pat and I climbed up 150 feet, about a hundred feet above the sheep. We attached our harnesses, set up the ropes, tied them to each other, and secured them to a rock. My role was to act as belay (fixed point of support) for Pat as he went down. Onto my harness I clipped a figure of eight, through which I would feed the safety rope to Pat. He abseiled down towards the sheep on his own rope, which was separate from the safety rope. The descent was very steep, and the slope was a craggy, mountainous area with huge humps of rock everywhere. Once he reached the sheep, he was able to stand on the ledge. Of course, this was child’s play to Pat, who would literally have slept hanging from even smaller ledges thousands of feet above ground.

  Pat made a harness with a few slings, which he then tied under the feet and body of the sheep. He clipped a karabiner onto the slings, fastened the karabiner onto his own harness, and lowered the sheep safely down to its anxious owner. We were treated to a cup of tea by the farmer, who also happened to be a maker of blackthorn walking sticks. When I admired them, he very kindly insisted I take one home as a thank-you.

  But not all searches for animals have a happy ending for their owners, especially those which involve old dogs. A local woman rang me for help when her Labrador went missing. I knew this woman well because she lived in Blossomgrove, a pretty village near Knockraha, and she ran a performing-arts theatre in Cork city. The Labrador was very old, and I was almost certain that he had gone off to die. But merely as a face-saving exercise and to keep the owner happy, I agreed to search for him. I brought along Dex. He wasn’t trained to search for dogs, but one dog will always acknowledge another dog, and I knew Dex would indicate if he came across a dead dog. We spent two days searching around the fields, but with no luck. Soon afterwards, neighbours found the woman’s Labrador lying dead in a garden only half a mile from home. He had settled down there to die. My initial gut feeling was right. Dogs can sense when their time is up. Instinct tells them they must go away, and so they leave their homes to find a place to die. It’s a throwback to the original dogs and to older breeds such as gun dogs – to a time when an old dog would be hunted out of the pack and sent away to die. When dogs leave their home to die, they keep on walking until they can go no further. They look for a comfortable place to lie down, even out in the open. They don’t necessarily seek a sheltered spot as they know they’ve come to the end of the road and need only a temporary resting place.

  Another time, a young German shepherd stray almost came to the end of his days when he became trapped in a very dangerous position. The Cork Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (CSPCA) had phoned me to ask if I could help, so I contacted Pat Falvey, who was only too glad to drop everything for another bit of ‘adventure’. Pat and I teamed up with the CSPCA inspector on the Lower Glanmire Road in Cork, near where the German shepherd was spotted stranded on the soaring, sandstone cliffs opposite the Ferry Boat Inn, with Montenotte towering overhead.

  The dog was caught on a ledge about 120 feet above ground. More than likely, he had plunged from a higher point. The ledge was only a foot wide. If the dog moved as much as an inch, he would plunge to the bottom. For the rescue, we used a dog catchpole, which resembles the handle of a brush. A line feeds through the pole and comes out at the end in a loop. We knew it would be impossible to rescue him unless he stayed completely still. We would have to make him calm.

  We made our way up Summerhill – a steep residential street – and went in through one of the houses, and steadily stepped onto the vertical cliffs that overlook the railway track. We were now about fifty feet above the dog. Pat abseiled down nearer the ledge, while I acted as belay above. He had to make sure the German shepherd did not panic or become stressed, as even the slightest movement would mean that the dog would crash instantly to his death. Pat positioned himself parallel with the German shepherd, just a few feet out from him. He didn’t make eye contact or put his hand out to rub the dog. Instead, he remained totally still for a few minutes. Then he eased out the catchpole and gently slipped the loop over the dog’s neck. Pat was glad the dog showed no resistance as it was the only way he could be saved. Next, Pat used his slings to form a harness for the dog, and carried him safely down. Pat was pictured in the local newspaper hang
ing off the cliffs on a rope with the dog strapped across his chest, and both of us later received an award for bravery from the CSPCA. A woman from Cobh gave a good home to the stray, whom she named Kerry.

  Some years ago, a dog I had bred strayed from his owners in Dublin and ended up in a dog’s home in Mountrath, County Laois. The day following the phone call from the manager of the re-homing centre, Áine and I drove up to check out the dog. We immediately fell for him as he had obviously been well socialised with people and children, and also appeared to have had some basic training. We offered to bring the dog home, if necessary, and find a new home for him. The manager said that they would love to find a permanent home for all the dogs in their care but there were just too many dogs for so small a population, and anyone who handed in dogs did so with the understanding that they were likely to be put to sleep. Britain is no different. The UK Dogs Trust 2009 Stray Dog Survey shows that 107,228 stray and abandoned dogs were picked up by local authorities between March 2008 and March 2009. Of those, more than 9,000 were put to sleep. But these figures are just the tip of the iceberg as many other abandoned dogs would have been taken in by rescue shelters, some of them dedicated to certain breeds.

  The biggest problem we have in Ireland is not created by most of the pure-bred breeders, but by all those owners of dogs who allow their pets to wander and mate with whatever happens along the way. As I mentioned earlier, issuing a cheaper dog licence for neutered pets on presentation of a vet’s certificate confirming that the dog has been neutered, micro-chipped and vaccinated would help control the situation.

  Puppy farming is a relatively new business in Ireland, and responsible breeders should not be penalised for the wrongs of a minority. The Green Party has pushed for a law to control breeding. John Gormley’s publication of the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009 called for the regulation of dog-breeding establishments. The minister has argued that the bill would safeguard dogs in breeding organisations, assure customers that pups and their mothers would be well treated there and put an end to backstreet operations once and for all. Under the bill, each local authority must have a register of dog-breeding establishments, and the operators must register and pay an annual fee. Hunt clubs, commercial boarding kennels and charitable dog operations such as mountain rescue would be exempted from paying a fee but would be required to register and be subject to a possible inspection. The District Court would have the authority to remove the breeding operator from the register by order, or to subject it to conditions that they may impose. A provision exists for fines not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for up to six months for summary offences. These offences include giving false information, failing to display a registration certificate, or obstruction of authorised personnel.