Underutilized Resource

With thousands of persons in this country going missing each year it is unsettling to see how many times the mantrailing Bloodhound is not utilized. Some law enforcement agencies have "trailing" K-9's as a resource but so often they do not and the K-9 that is used is a police K-9 that usually has been trained to be a patrol dog. To use this type of dog to trail a victim many hours after they went missing would be like trying to use a Bloodhound as a patrol dog. The Bloodhound that has been trained in mantrailing is widely known as the best breed for the job. When a life is at stake all qualified resources should be used. Yet it seems the oft forgotten K-9 in law enforcement is the mantrailing Bloodhound.

With many "private" K-9 search and rescue organizations deploying trained mantrailing Bloodhounds and offering their services free of charge, why is this resource often ignored when a person goes missing? While politics does enter into this, I submit it is a lack of education as to what this resource is capable of doing. This is the reason for this blog - to stimulate discussions, opinions and most of all, knowledge and education on this subject.

In the recent past, we had a mother of two children who went missing before the holidays. While the local K-9 search and rescue organization offered it's services to local law enforcement, it's services where not utilized. <<She was later found murdered and left beside the freeway>> and no one knows whether trained Bloodhounds could have assisted in the search to find her. No one will ever know as these resources were ignored.

Hopefully this blog will stimulate lively comments and discussions that will lead to a better understanding of this underutilized resource. If it can, then just maybe this awareness will have an impact on those that are responsible for utilizing every resource possible to locate people who go missing in this country. Just as the Amber Alert network is a wonderful resource, so is the properly trained trailing dog, and the breed that meets this task the best is the Bloodhound.

This web site is dedicated to Julia Dawson's memory.

Lindy


News Flash - Julia Dawson's husband Tim Dawson was found guilty of her murder on July 6th 2008 in a Grand Rapids, Michigan Court of Law!

Finally the family of Julia Dawson has some closure.

Mother Found

The missing mother I mentioned in my previous post has been found deceased, 15 miles from where her car was originally found when she disappeared three weeks ago. We will never know if the Bloodhounds could have been of help initially and possibly could have found her before she was murdered.

This underscores the need for more discussion leading to a better understanding of this underutilized resource.

Lindy