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| Gendarme dog saves man’s life |
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| Thursday, 03 January 2008 | |
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A Belgian shepherd dog called Toki is the toast of his Gendarmerie kennels home after saving the life of a man who spent a night lost in a wood in sub-zero temperatures.  The man, whose name Gendarmerie sources withheld, was rushed to hospital suffering from hypothermia. He is now out of danger. The drama took place near Lannion, Côtes d’Armor. At one point during the frantic hunt, it was touch-and-go whether Toki would pick up the scent. By the time he and handler Sylvain Robert reached the scene, several people had been on the spot and the site was contaminated. Relatives reported the man missing the previous evening when he failed to return home. Next day, in pre-dawn darkness at six, a passing motorist spotted a badly parked car left open and unattended on a country road in woodland, and called gendarmes. Toki was on the scene by eight-fifteen. Toki took the scent from a windcheater left in the car – but then failed to pick up the trace because too many people had been there. By now, time was critical. Eight hours in those temperatures are as much as most people can survive, and the Gendarmerie team was on that limit. Fifty metres back down the road, they tried again – and Toki picked up the scent. “The morning frost helped us,” explained Gendarme Robert. “It fixes the scent.” In half an hour, Toki found the missing man, propped against the trunk of a pine tree. To Gendarme Robert, the best part of his morning’s work was to tell the family their relative was safe and sound. “That’s the best reward of all,” he said. by David Boggis |
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