The best of boys has been honoured with a service award after a distinguished career of sniffing parcels.
Podder, the San Diego County detector dog is hanging up his snout and heading into retirement after four years of working for the county’s Agriculture, Weights & Measures Department.
His ceremony was attended by some of the most renowned detector dogs in the county, Podder’s former detection colleague Yeti, and retired detector dog Venus.
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Ha Dang, commission/sealer for the department, said: “In honour of Podder’s service, I’d like to present this Service Award for four years of County service.”
The lab mixed beagle has worked with Kyle Moranton over his tenure at the department, intercepting unmarked agricultural parcels that would be in violation of agricultural quarantine, or containing unwanted pests such as insects, diseases, and other harmful organisms.
Moranton said: “He has a great nose. I’m going to miss him.
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“As a dog…he just loves hunting more than anything… he’s always trying to find things.”
Unfortunately, Podder is having to retire with a medical condition, however, he has already been organised to move into a new, loving home.
The Detector Dog Team program kicked off in 2009, started by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The dogs were tasked with sniffing and identifying high risk, unmarked parcels, with those packages opened and checked for insects, diseases, or quarantines.
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They are utilised in facilities such as UPS, FedEX, and the U.S Postal Service.
A top-tier detector, Podder made 426 visits to such facilities, where he found 728 plants, and 137 insect pests capable of causing harm to agriculture.
These law enforcement dogs are leaving quite an impression on the public.
One tiny drug-detecting dog made the rounds online earlier this month.
A chihuahua named Chiqui went viral on TikTok after a Colombian passenger filmed the small boy wandering around the terminal sniffing out for anything out of the ordinary.
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He was very much a part of the crew as well, spotted with a group of law enforcement officers and wearing a vest to match.
The video on TikTok has been viewed 9 million times with more than 650k likes.
It’s safe to say Chiqui’s charm is infectious.
Topics: Dogs
Jayden Collins