Working Dogs for Conservation

WD4C continues to provide consultation, support, and maintenance training to the Zambia team to ensure that the dogs remain eager, efficient and effective in their work. These dogs have since helped law enforcement confiscate wildlife parts and products, muzzle loaders, AK-47s, snares, ammunition, and gunpowder. Guns are rare in the region, and are often shared by multiple poachers, so removing even a single firearm from circulation can have a significant impact. Our dogs have found poaching contraband that law enforcement would never have discovered without them, such as gun parts concealed in the thatched roof of a hut, or, incredibly, a tiny primer cap (used to fire a muzzle loader) that was placed in a matchbox, hidden inside a suitcase, and buried among bags and parcels in a tightly packed van. Searches like these often happen along roads or in villages, when many bystanders are watching, which adds to the dogs' deterrence value.