Patrolling for Poachers
By Regan Michelle White

The founding mission of the police force is to protect and serve and for state police officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that means an unwavering commitment to protecting wildlife and all those who enjoy it. However, they don’t do it alone. Since the 1980s, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) has implemented dog-officer teams to help sniff out poachers with unprecedented success. These dynamic duos of detection dogs and state police officers have proven so effective that Florida’s program has steadily increased their numbers to become the largest dog-handler conservation program in the US. The Florida program currently consists of 12 dog-officer teams seeking illegal carcasses, bait and firearms around the state. In May of 2004 FWC Officer of Volusia County, Jeff Gier was teamed up with three-year-old Chocolate Lab, Bubba and the two joined this tremendous task force.

Gier, a former Lieutenant for Fish and Wildlife, took a demotion to traipse through the woods with Bubba and follow his commitment to actively serving in the preservation and conservation of Florida’s wildlife. He says, “I had wanted to be a conservation officer ever since I was in high school. I studied wildlife management at Hocking College in Ohio. I was hired by the state of Florida 17 years ago and have always had an interest in our K-9 program since it started 15 years ago, but due to limited available positions I had not been able to get in. This past year when Col. Julie Jones (FWC’s Chief of the Division of Law Enforcement) expanded the agency’s K-9 program I jumped at the opportunity.”

It seems that Bubba jumped at the opportunity as well. Bubba was donated to the program by a family in Tallahassee, FL and his signature boundless energy has proven to be a perfect fit for his line of work. As with most all dogs that excel in detection, John Snow, head of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s K-9 program emphasizes that, “We look for the hyperactive dog no one wants – the one that ate the couch; the one that will retrieve all day long.” And Bubba certainly seems to fit the description to a tee, bubbling over with so much extra energy that on a daily basis Jeff will let him run behind the truck for a mile as they patrol the Volusia Woodlands.

When asked about a typical day of work, Jeff is quick to reply that, “There really are no typical days. Bubba and I ride on patrol and I utilize Bubba in an area search where I know that hunters have been. We search the area to gather information, inspect tree stand sites for bait, etc. We do get tips through our Wildlife Alert Hotline but we actively patrol seeking out violators, too. Often another officer will call us with a request. We could be doing anything from working a simple littering infraction to tracking an escaped prisoner. Volusia County is very large and we also work surrounding counties as well. Occasionally we will also travel to other parts of the state to assist with large details, for example during mini lobster season in the Florida Keys.”

Bubba is trained to detect venison, spiney lobster, turkey, duck, alligator and black bear. His training drills are the same exercises that are used to train narcotics and other detection dogs. He is trained to be an active alert dog, scratching at the source of the odor he has been trained to alert on. He also tracks people and is trained to indicate articles that have been dropped or hidden by a suspect, from guns to fired shell casings – anything with human scent on it. Baiting or luring animals with food on public land is illegal, however in order to prove that a hunter is guilty of baiting the law defines that an officer must show that he or she was actually sitting over the bait. The task is a tough one, but made much more manageable with the assistance of dogs like Bubba who are able to sniff out the evidence and prove that a hunter was there lying in wait over the bait. Courts generally accept dog handlers’ interpretation of events and detection dogs have proven an effective deterrent in management areas where people would rather admit wrongdoing than suffer being sniffed out.

Jeff stresses the importance of keeping Bubba current in his training, particularly for the approaching season saying, “We train weekly, not on all substances but in preparation for whatever season is coming up. The agency gives us one day a week to train locally and we meet with one of our K-9 trainers at least once a month. We also have a quarterly meeting where all our K-9 teams meet as a unit and train together.” With only a single hunting season under his belt thus far, Bubba has still managed to crack down on at least a dozen criminal incidents.

The founding mission of the police force is to protect and serve and for state police officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that means an unwavering commitment to protecting wildlife and all those who enjoy it. However, they don’t do it alone. Since the 1980s, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) has implemented dog-officer teams to help sniff out poachers with unprecedented success. These dynamic duos of detection dogs and state police officers have proven so effective that Florida’s program has steadily increased their numbers to become the largest dog-handler conservation program in the US. The Florida program currently consists of 12 dog-officer teams seeking illegal carcasses, bait and firearms around the state. In May of 2004 FWC Officer of Volusia County, Jeff Gier was teamed up with three-year-old Chocolate Lab, Bubba and the two joined this tremendous task force.

Gier, a former Lieutenant for Fish and Wildlife, took a demotion to traipse through the woods with Bubba and follow his commitment to actively serving in the preservation and conservation of Florida’s wildlife. He says, “I had wanted to be a conservation officer ever since I was in high school. I studied wildlife management at Hocking College in Ohio. I was hired by the state of Florida 17 years ago and have always had an interest in our K-9 program since it started 15 years ago, but due to limited available positions I had not been able to get in. This past year when Col. Julie Jones (FWC’s Chief of the Division of Law Enforcement) expanded the agency’s K-9 program I jumped at the opportunity.”

It seems that Bubba jumped at the opportunity as well. Bubba was donated to the program by a family in Tallahassee, FL and his signature boundless energy has proven to be a perfect fit for his line of work. As with most all dogs that excel in detection, John Snow, head of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s K-9 program emphasizes that, “We look for the hyperactive dog no one wants – the one that ate the couch; the one that will retrieve all day long.” And Bubba certainly seems to fit the description to a tee, bubbling over with so much extra energy that on a daily basis Jeff will let him run behind the truck for a mile as they patrol the Volusia Woodlands.

When asked about a typical day of work, Jeff is quick to reply that, “There really are no typical days. Bubba and I ride on patrol and I utilize Bubba in an area search where I know that hunters have been. We search the area to gather information, inspect tree stand sites for bait, etc. We do get tips through our Wildlife Alert Hotline but we actively patrol seeking out violators, too. Often another officer will call us with a request. We could be doing anything from working a simple littering infraction to tracking an escaped prisoner. Volusia County is very large and we also work surrounding counties as well. Occasionally we will also travel to other parts of the state to assist with large details, for example during mini lobster season in the Florida Keys.”

Bubba is trained to detect venison, spiney lobster, turkey, duck, alligator and black bear. His training drills are the same exercises that are used to train narcotics and other detection dogs. He is trained to be an active alert dog, scratching at the source of the odor he has been trained to alert on. He also tracks people and is trained to indicate articles that have been dropped or hidden by a suspect, from guns to fired shell casings – anything with human scent on it. Baiting or luring animals with food on public land is illegal, however in order to prove that a hunter is guilty of baiting the law defines that an officer must show that he or she was actually sitting over the bait. The task is a tough one, but made much more manageable with the assistance of dogs like Bubba who are able to sniff out the evidence and prove that a hunter was there lying in wait over the bait. Courts generally accept dog handlers’ interpretation of events and detection dogs have proven an effective deterrent in management areas where people would rather admit wrongdoing than suffer being sniffed out.

Jeff stresses the importance of keeping Bubba current in his training, particularly for the approaching season saying, “We train weekly, not on all substances but in preparation for whatever season is coming up. The agency gives us one day a week to train locally and we meet with one of our K-9 trainers at least once a month. We also have a quarterly meeting where all our K-9 teams meet as a unit and train together.” With only a single hunting season under his belt thus far, Bubba has still managed to crack down on at least a dozen criminal incidents.

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