SANParks Honorary Rangers have just purchased 3 new dogs for the Kruger National Park. These 3 future heroes will be deployed in the park in next few weeks.

To give some insight into the effectiveness of these anti poaching dogs, the Doberman Bloodhound cross in the Crocodile Bridge area had 6 successful arrests recently. He caught 3 suspected poachers on a Friday. He started following the spoor at 07h00 in the morning and made contact only at 17h00. After 10hrs of work, the K9 team finally hit contact and arrested the 3 suspects.

Again on Sunday the K9 and team had more success and arrested another 3 suspected poachers. On both occasions they confiscated the weapons and retrieved backpacks as evidence. This specific Doberman Bloodhound cross is now 6 years old and still has a few years of conserving our wildlife left in him.

One of the three new dogs is Bentley-Asnah, who was visiting Kruger National Park for a two-day training programme before returning to Rustenburg to complete the last month of his training at Paramount Training Academy. He will then be based at the Pretoriuskop outpost. Bentley-Asnah is a 3-month-old Bloodhound cross and is a big male with the friendly nature expected from this breed.

The name Bentley was his birth name and Asnah was chosen by the Airliner4Animals after asking for suggestions from their donors. There are three meanings to the name Asnah:

– Lufthansa – the last 5 letters backwards
– Hebrew baby name meaning thorn bush
– Hansa beer spelt backwards (possibly the best meaning!)

Airliner4Animals (A4A) is a group of airline personnel based in Germany who contribute towards animals in need throughout the world. Their projects are undertaken on a volunteer basis and they give support for all animals, be it domestic or wild. Since 2017 A4A have contributed a substantial amount towards the SANParks Kruger K9 project, and we, as Pretoria Region, are proudly associated with them. They make a huge difference with their support and we hope to have their continued support for K9 Project Watchdog for many years to come.

The 3 dogs were kindly sponsored by the following regions and organisations:

Zulu – Kwa-Zulu Natal Region
Bently – Pretoria Region with Airline for Animals
Rigby – East Rand Region

We thank the above regions and all their donors for their support.

Our fundraising projects and donors make it possible to ensure that the K9s operate at their full ability and have a massive impact on the daily fight against Rhino poaching.