Walking with the Alligators

Walking with the Alligators
A Florida Alligator

April 7, 2013

Who Let The Dogs Out

A USFWS Detector Dog
Wildlife Inspector Amir Lawal of the Service’s
Miami Law Enforcement Office and Viper
Picture Credit:  Tom MacKenzie / USFWS



Many thanks to Russell McLendon of Mother Nature Network for sharing this great story and vital information.
Many thanks also to Tom MacKenzie of the USFWS, for granting permission to use this picture, his hard work on this awesome project and all of his super pictures for it.

Poaching may not be a big problem in a lot of places, but Florida is not one of those places.

It seems like too many of our wild animals, as well as some highly prized orchids in this state, like the Ghost Orchid, have at one time or another, fallen victim to these fiends,   
who believe it is their right to steal things and then sell them to the highest bidder.
Recently many of our beloved wild turtles have been stolen by the hundreds of thousands, and sold to Asian countries where they are used for food, medicine and other.   
It would seem that these countries have long ago eradicated their turtle populations.   
Trappers or poachers, come to Florida and go into our swamps and marshes or where ever they can find them and just load up and ship out our wild turtles in such numbers, that many of them may soon be put on Endangered lists, when they never were in the past.
Enter my personal heroes, the Sniffer Dogs!

Now, these are not just any dogs, they are very well-trained, professional sniffers and they are doing what few humans can, tracking down or sniffing out, stolen wildlife.
These awesome dogs and their handlers, USFW agents, will soon be stationed at ports around the country and hopefully will help stop the tidal wave of thefts of our beloved Florida wild things to these scum bag poachers.   

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