Some of you may have seen photos of Marley on the ScPA Facebook page and wondered why there was no interest in him. Well the reason is that he has been reserved for a very special mission. As you read this, Marley is on his way to Benin, where he will help the International Fund for Animal Wefare (IFAW) with the problem of ivory poaching!
Francophones can read about this work here : https://www.ifaw.org/france/chien-detection-ivoire-Benin and with any luck non- Francophones can make sense of what google translate throws out.
Isn’t that amazing?
This was set in motion several weeks ago, when Vincent was contacted by IFAW who was looking for suitable dogs to train. IFAW then sent a couple of team members to the ScPA ,who selected Marley has having the right temperament for their team. Since then it has been a matter of organising logistics for his departure. Despite the fact that he is going on a longer journey than any of our other dogs, there is no TRACES paperwork to do, as the destination country is non-European. Yes, it is ironic that despite travelling by plane for many hours, there are no real laws governing Marley’s sanitary status. Except of course he is a valuable asset, both to the ScPA and to IFAW. So Marley has been vaccinated against everything that he is likely to come across, and of course his journey will be as stress free as it can possibly be.
The ScPA will get news of Marley and his mission. What an exciting life he has ahead of him. He will be doing lots of exciting training before his life as an animal protector really gets underway, and he will be loved and well looked after by the canine experts who are in charge of this important mission. Many thanks to IFAW for giving this fabulous chance to Marley!