A POLICE dog who helped crack the cases of missing Diana Quer and Gabriel Cruz Ramírez among another 500 cases – many of them high-profile – has been retired with honours, according to the Guardia Civil’s Twitter site.
Elton was key in tracing 18-year-old Madrid-born Diana, whose body was found in Galicia last New Year’s Eve after a 15-month search, and also eight-year-old Gabriel from Almería, leading to the killers of both ending up in custody.
He also took part in the as-yet fruitless searches for the bodies of Marta del Castillo, murdered 10 years ago by her ex-boyfriend in Sevilla when she was 17, and Yéremi Vargas, who is believed to have been abducted by a paedophile in 2007 from outside his Gran Canaria home, when he was seven.
Elton is so well-trained that he can provide proof of a homicide from the smallest drop of blood.
The 12-year-old German Shepherd is in fact retiring quite late, the Guardia Civil reveals.
Dogs for use in the forces are normally trained in one of three main specialist areas – safety, search and rescue; explosives detection; and drug detection, which can also include tobacco and food.
Once trained, they then work for between seven and 10 years.
They typically retire at the age of 10 or 11 at the oldest.
Where possible, they live the rest of their lives with the officer who was in charge of them when they were on duty, although where this is not practical for the officer in question, they are adopted as family pets.
Retired police dogs are always ensured a good home for the rest of their days and their new owners, where the original officer cannot take them in, are very carefully selected.
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