FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A therapy dog at the Broward Sheriff’s Office is now the department’s first cadaver dog.
Meet K-9 Maggie.
“She is a therapy dog for us,” said BSO detective Christopher Favitta. “She now has a new endeavor as a cadaver dog.”
On Monday, the 2-year-old labrador showed off her skills during a training exercise at BSO’s aviation hangar, tracking down samples of human remains, a critical resource for homicide detectives.
“She’s going to be a great tool coming forward, helping us with homicide investigations, our new cold case initiative and even recovering missing persons,” said Favitta.
Maggie has been on the job for about a year as a therapy dog with the special victims unit.
“She’s good in that role,” said Favitta. “She’ll put her head in your lap, she sits with the victims on the floor. She can sit on a chair with them, whatever pretty much they need to make them feel comfortable, and even from there she’s able to switch from that role and come here and look for a victim.”
And now she’ll be working double duty following months of training.
“Not every dog can do this,” said Favitta. “Like I said, the dog definitely has to have an aptitude to do this type of work. You need a really motivated dog that won’t give up and will continue to search under a lot of different circumstances.”
There is more in store for Maggie. The plan is to have her learn to do open water searches sometime next year.
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