Rescuers expand canine services

Gavin Roberts and Gelert completed their training at the weekend

A rescue organisation based in Penmaenmawr in Conwy has branched out to help forensic science by training four dogs to find human remains.

The Global Rescue Services charity is better known for its work flying out to assist in areas hit by earthquakes.

But now a specialist team of four handlers and dogs will be on call to help in murder enquiries and other incidents involving human remains.

All volunteers, the team and dogs undertook 18 months of training.

The so-called cadaver dogs could be called out to assist in any case in the UK where a body could be buried, like in a murder, or where body parts are spread over a wide area, such as after a plane accident.

"Police forces are increasingly using dogs for this kind of work," said Global Rescue Services' team leader David Jones.

Shower curtains

The dogs on the team range from small terriers to spaniels and mongrels and are trained for the cadaver work using pigs, as pork is "80 - 85% as near to human flesh as you can get without the real thing", he said.

"We don't just bury a pig however. We wrap them in shower curtains, carpets, conceal them in different places, anything that someone trying to hide a body might do," he added.

Team member Gavin Roberts, 35, has already qualified to work with a dog called Wil to work in collapsed buildings, but now has a cadaver dog - a small brown terrier called Gelert.

The new team of cadaver dogs with their handlers and assessors

He said he was not worried about the more gruesome aspect of the work because he had been trained.

"I'd prefer that I'd never have to use the dog for this type of work, but unfortunately because of the world we live in these things happen," he said.

John McIlwaine from the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford is a specialist who has worked with cadaver dogs in the past.

"I think cadaver dogs are an excellent resource. We can sometimes be seduced by technology but I think a well-trained dog and handler is worth every penny," he said.

Until now the Global Rescue Services team has concentrated on searching disaster sites, mountain rescues and mines clearance which has taken members to El Salvador, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Turkey, Mozambique and Somaliland.