New Biosecurity Detector Dog Team Starts At Wellington Airport

A new permanent detector dog team will start today at Wellington airport with the job of sniffing out exotic pests and diseases that pose biosecurity risk to New Zealand.

Carlijn Bouwman graduated from her training as a quarantine inspector and a dog handler at a ceremony in Auckland on Friday, along with 45 other new biosecurity frontline staff. Today is her first day on the job as a warranted inspector.

It is also the first day for Bounty, a 16-month-old beagle, who has been training with Carlijn over the last eight weeks.

Carlijn and Bounty will be the first of two new Wellington-based detector dog teams. The second team is due to start around June next year. The teams will work at the port as well as the airport.

Over the last year, the Ministry for Primary Industries has been using detector dog teams from Dunedin to fill in at Wellington as needed, says Border Clearance Services Manager Steve Gilbert.

“It’s great to get some permanent capacity in place in Wellington before the start of the busy summer season.”

Detector dog teams are very useful for detecting biosecurity risks when used with other checks, Mr Gilbert says.

“No tool is sufficient to manage biosecurity by itself. Dogs are good at picking up seeds and plants that can be hard to detect by x-ray. They also screen people faster than x-ray, and their visual presence is a significant factor,” he says.

A photo of Carlijn and Bounty is attached. They are pictured outside the Auckland International Terminal Building on their graduation day (last Friday)

Click for big
version.
Carlijin and Bounty

ENDS

© Scoop Media