How strong bond between man and animal can be shows the relationship of minesweeper of the Federal Civil Protection Alden Ceska with 8-year-old German shepherd Betsy, who are working together since 2009 on detecting landmines and unexploded ordnance left over from the last aggression on BiH.
With the support of the US State Department and Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI), the American non-profit organization, Alden has trained Betsy and together they had already searched and cleared more than 560,000 m2 of land from mines and that the land can be used now for livestock, agriculture etc.
After unprecedented floods in May 2014, Alden and Betsy participated in the action of cleaning the areas from mines that moved under the onslaught of water.
MLI awarded them as the team of the year in 2014, in a tough competition of teams from vulnerable countries of the world.
A trained sniffer dog with his coach can search the suspected area even 30 times faster than technicians itself. In the past 2 years, these mixed teams searched more than 9,350,000 m2 of surface area that were covered in mines.
Betsy and Alden are one of many teams that are putting their lives on the line in order to protect innocent civilians. Although the day when Betsy should “retire” is coming soon, Alden, however, will not separate from her because he has the intention to adopt her.
Although there will be no longer working together in the field, their current contribution is immeasurable.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
