USE OF SPECIAL DOGS FOR SEARCHES URGED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29515, 17 May 1961, Page 14

USE OF SPECIAL DOGS FOR SEARCHES URGED

The numbers of persons who perish or become lost in the New Zealand bush and high country could be reduced very considerably if police maintained exclusively for tracking a specialised dog branch comprising introduced breeds with a much higher tracking ability than Alsatians at present used. This view was expressed yesterday by Mr A. F. Perrott, who from 1940 to 1945 was Inspector-General of Police of the North-west Frontier Province of India. Mr Perrott, who was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1943. was in charge of an area of more than 25,000 square miles While deputy-inspector in 1935 Mr Perrott established a dog branch on the lines of those used with considerable success in South Africa. The result, he said, was a bie increase in the capture of murderers, robbers, cattle thieves, and other wrongdoers who were rife in the province and the adjacen' tribal territories. Mr Perrott said he considered that with the righ’ type of dog police in New Zealand could improve on the record of the South African dog branches, which had performed amazing work in dry harsh conditions unsuited for tracking. New Zealand had ideal terrain and moist conditions for tracking, and trails of lost persons could be picked up even after some days.

“In most cases a good deal of time and money is expended on the search for persons lost in the back country,” said Mr Perrott “Sometimes the persons are found or reappear, but sometimes they are not heard of again. Occasionally police dogs are called In to help the searchers, but the conditions are not always suitable for their employment. “The reason for the lack of access in these cases mav well lie m the type of doc employed. Alsatians are excellent for city work, but are not remarkable for their sc S" tin? Powers.” he said Mr Perrott said that while ~e as de P ut y-inspector of the Frontier Province he considered the possibility of using trained dogs to track burglars and other offenders Having heard that dogs had proved useful in Palestine at the time of the Arab rebellion, he wrote to the authorities there for information They replied that the real experts in the use of tracking dogs were the South African police. “I then wrote to South Africa, and was sent reports of their dog branch which shewed that their dogs had been successful in trailing and overtaking burglars and cattle thieves. In some cases they had taken up trails after some days had elapsed, and in others had caught criminals after trailing them for several days,” said Mr Perrott.

South African Help He said the local government administering the province accepted an offer from the South African police to train two dogmasters for a year and return them complete with teams of dogs. Two British police sergeants were sent, and after their return to India, with 12 trained dogs, they trained Indian dogmasters, and in time a dog branch was set up in each district in the province. The dogs received from South Africa were all crossbreds. the chief strains being

Dobermann - Pinscher and bloodhound. They were trained for trailing only, and achieved some remarkable successes, Mr Perrott said. As was so in South Africa, the Frontier country was unsuitable for tracking, being dry and sun-baked for most of the year. Nevertheless, the dogs would follow a trail sometimes for more than a day, even though taken to a place several hours or a day after an offence. “The dogs' intelligence came from their Dobermann blood, and their scenting powers from the bloodhound side. Though we bred extensively from the original dogs their progeny gradually lost the ability to follow a trail as the bloodhound strain became weaker. During

World War II it was difficult to find a pedigree bloodhound in India.” Mr Perrott said New Zealand, particularly the South Island, was ideal terrain for tracking, and dog branches similar to those in operation in South Africa and India would be of inestimable value in tracing persons who otherwise might perish. “I am convinced that it would be rare for lost per-; sons not to be located," he; said. “It would be necessary to maintain one or two teams of dogs trained for this purpose only, and to take them by air to the area of the search. It is unlikely that more expense would be involved than is the case at present. "Dogs can go into difficult country searchers cannot cover, and can pick up scents and find missing articles which would escape the eyes of searchers.”