{"id":1941,"date":"2013-10-08T15:28:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T15:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2013-10-08T15:29:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T15:29:04","slug":"texas-game-wardens-organize-first-ever-k9-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=1941","title":{"rendered":"Texas Game Wardens organize first-ever K9 Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet the new K-9 corps! This story shows the first-ever K-9 team of Texas Game Wardens meeting their new four-legged partners. The first training phase shown here focuses on narcotics. That’s a reality of what game wardens encounter in the field, though it’s only one aspect of their broader work. K-9 teams also learn search and rescue, how to sniff out illegal hunting\/fishing evidence, and many other skills. For more information on what Texas Game Wardens do or how to become a game warden, go to\u00a0http:\/\/www.tpwd.state.tx.us\/warden\/<\/a><\/p>\n

AUSTIN — For the first time in their history, Texas Game Wardens have a full-time, statewide canine team.<\/p>\n

The first five canine handlers and dogs have graduated from an intense eight-week training program located at the world famous Utah POST canine facility in Salt Lake City. The second wave of canine handlers and dogs will attend the course in January 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe K9 program has been a long time coming, and we are extremely proud of our handlers for their hard work \u2013 an effort which resulted in a 100 percent pass rate,\u201d said Grahame Jones, Chief of Special Operations for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Division. \u201cIn addition to excellent support from the department and the Parks and Wildlife Commission, we would like to thank the Travis County Sheriff\u2019s Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation for assisting during the planning phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding for the purchase of dogs and travel to and from Utah was provided by the TPW Foundation through a private donor. Utah Post provided the training at no cost with the exception of a minimal administrative fee, an amount also paid for by the private donor.<\/p>\n

Depending on geographical location, the dogs will be used for various functions including detection of illegally taken or smuggled game and fish, search and rescue, cadaver search, and narcotics enforcement. \u201cMost of the dogs will have dual functions such as wildlife detection and search and rescue,\u201d said Game Warden Capt. Kevin Davis, who oversees the canine program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am gratified to assist Texas Game Wardens in their efforts to diminish the trafficking of contraband in their communities,\u201d said Sgt. Wendell Nope, Utah Post K9 Training Director. \u201cI look forward to working with TPWD in the near future to further enhance the abilities of the canines and handlers in search and rescue situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot thank Utah Post enough for their partnership and professionalism,\u201d said Col. Craig Hunter, LE Division Director. \u201cThe department is extremely excited to see the Texas Game Warden K9 team become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet the new K-9 corps! This story shows the first-ever K-9 team of Texas Game Wardens meeting their new four-legged partners. The first training phase shown here focuses on narcotics. That’s a reality of what game wardens encounter in the field, though it’s only one aspect of their broader work. K-9 teams also learn search […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-exclusive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1943,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}