Frequently Asked Questions
- How can I become more involved in your organisation?
If you think your skills could be useful for us and our projects, please get in contact at info@dogs4wildlife.org and a member of the team will be happy to reply.
- I am interested in fully sponsoring a dog, how do I go about this?
- Does Dogs for Wildlife put on events that I can attend?
If you would be interested in hosting us for a talk or fundraiser, or indeed organising an event on our behalf please do get in touch!
- Do you offer talks to schools and other groups?
- Are you looking for employees or do you take on volunteers?
- Can I donate items to Dogs4Wildlife?
Specialist dog training and handler equipment is always needed for our work. If you think you could help please send us details of the items and your location to: info@dogs4wildlife.org.
- Why do you train your dog’s initially in the UK?
- Do the dogs react to the change in temperature once deployed in Africa?
- What breed of dog does Dogs 4 Wildlife use and why?
- Are the dogs in danger of being hurt / harmed themselves?
All of the dogs when out on active operations wear ballistic body armour. Most operations happen during the night, where under the cover of darkness visibility is greatly reduced. None of the poaching gangs are specialists in the use of firearms and to hit an Anti Poaching Dog in the dark where they reach speeds of up to 30+KPH, which gives the poacher less than 3-4 seconds to raise his rifle to stop the dog, is virtually impossible. None of the dogs we have raised and supplied so far, have been lost or even injured in the line of duty in a number of years, not forgetting the dog unit is always backed up by a fully armed ranger unit. The welfare of the dogs within the rangers care is of the utmost priority, and although they carry out a potentially dangerous task, the safety of the dog teams and handlers is paramount. Combine this with the fact that the majority of poachers are often terrified of the presence of these dogs therefore mostly all confrontations do not end in violence.
Dogs 4 Wildlife believes that involving community in conserving their countries wildlife is hugely beneficial and has been proven to produce better results. Working against communities invokes anger and disconnects local people from their own countries future, therefore violence should be avoided.
- Why does Dogs 4 Wildlife not use rescue dogs?
We wouldn’t want to deploy a dog that isn’t fit for purpose; this puts both dog and handler at risk. In the future, with your support, we hope to train detection dogs and this type of dog could be obtained from rescue facilities given the circumstance and the abilities of the individual dog.