8 AAU Betiko

Formerly Abused Rescue Dog Joins Beagle Brigade at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialist Amabelle Gella and Murray perform a search during a demonstration. Photo: Kent D. Johnson/AJC

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Beagles are well known for their practiced noses. And its not uncommon for travelers passing through the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to see them employed as agriculture detector dogs, putting their nuanced noses to work sniffing luggage to keep potentially harmful food products and pests from entering the United States.

Naturally, members of Atlanta’s Beagle Brigade go through extensive training before graduating into their positions, but the pack’s newest member has already met some grave challenges on his life path.

Murray is 3 years old and in a few weeks, he’ll be a full-fledged member of the Beagle Brigade, but a year ago his life was very different. He was rescued by Alcovy Pet Rescue, Inc.from the Northeast Georgia Animal Shelter, which intakes about 3,000 animals every year.

“He was very eager for love and very eager for attention,” Tammie Jourdanais, the shelter’s director, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “He was scared and timid and everything like that, which is probably from being stuck in a small cage or kennel and not (being allowed) to socialize or (being) paid attention to,” Jourdanais said.

Murray has a short tail, but it wasn’t always that way. Most of it had to be amputated when he came into rescue. Someone had tied a band very tightly, cutting off the circulation. Jourdanis believes his former owners may have been attempting to dock (or cut) Murray’s tail off without paying a vet to do it.

“It causes a lot of pain…” she said. “…the tail just rots off, pretty much.”

In Georgia, tail docking by anyone other than a licensed vet (which is required to be done with a pup is between three and five days old) is illegal.

Half of one of Murray’s ears was gone, as well. The injury, whether intentional or accidental, will likely always be a mystery. Each of his wounds was tended in rescue, though, and that’s also where he began socialization.