There, Vasquez ran her 4-year-old black Labrador retriever, Charlie, through his paces detecting a black-footed ferret scent hidden in one of several containers. The training was taking place at a special facility outside Missoula. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school have been studying whether dogs can detect chronic wasting disease in the lab, but the project on the Blackfeet reservation is the first attempt to do so in the field, according to Vasquez.
Michele Vasquez (left) and researcher Souta Calling Last sit with Charlie, a Lab trained to detect several scents for Working Dogs for Conservation. If Calling Last’s project proves dogs can effectively do this work, Working Dogs for Conservation trainer Michele Vasquez said, the organization hopes to expand the effort across the country. “For us to be healthy and strong, people in good spirit and good mind, we’re supposed to be eating these foods to stay healthy and strong,” she said.Ĭalling Last plans to send scat, soil, and water samples for testing from locations where the dogs alert their handlers to confirm they found chronic wasting disease. The dogs also will sniff out mink and otter scat so it can be tested for chemicals and contaminants in illegal dumpsites of old cars, furniture, and appliances.ĭetecting those toxic substances will help protect tribal members who utilize plants like mint for tea or willows burned in sweat lodges, Calling Last said. The idea is to help alert wildlife managers of the disease’s presence as early as possible.
#Leather hides full#
Standing near a wetland full of cattails, Calling Last said the dogs trained by the nonprofit organization Working Dogs for Conservation will detect chronic wasting disease in deer and elk scat at such sites that serve as watering holes for herds. He noted brain matter would be especially dangerous to handle, as Cook does in his brain tanning since it holds the highest concentration of the prions that cause the disease. Rocky Mountain Laboratories researcher Brent Race said the possibility of the prions infecting humans hasn’t been ruled out. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people don’t eat meat from animals that test positive, though there’s no proof the disease can be transmitted to humans. A high-risk materialĬharlie, a 4-year-old Lab, is in training for a project on the Blackfeet reservation that marks the first attempt to see whether dogs can detect chronic wasting disease outside the lab. The project aims to protect tribal members’ health by letting them know where the disease has been detected and where toxic waste has been found to preserve safe spaces to conduct traditional practices. Calling Last received a $75,000 federal grant to run a yearlong study to train dogs to sniff out chronic wasting disease and toxic waste that might otherwise be ingested by people who hunt wild game and gather traditional plants.
Some families depend on meat from the deer, elk, or moose they can hunt several months out of the year. The disease is already forcing tribal members to alter or abandon traditional practices like brain tanning, said Souta Calling Last, a Blackfeet researcher and executive director of the nonprofit cultural and educational organization Indigenous Vision.Ĭalling Last also worries the spread of chronic wasting disease will prevent tribal members from eating wild game. The chronic wasting disease has been detected in just one white-tailed deer on the Blackfeet reservation, but once it’s present, it’s impossible to eradicate, according to wildlife managers.
The disease has spread among herds across North America since it was first discovered in wild animals more than 40 years ago in Colorado and Wyoming. The chronic wasting disease is caused by misfolded proteins called prions, which deteriorate an infected animal’s brain and bodily functions until it dies - typically within a couple of years of infection. Hide tanner Kenneth Cook holds up deer hides he “brain-tanned.” Cook explains that leather made using this traditional technique is more durable and strong enough to stand up to traditional stitch work compared with commercially tanned leather.
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