EMPLOYEES AT a US Corporation helped find homes for more than two dozen German Shepherd and a BSD Malinois that were recently retired after detecting landmines in Afghanistan.

The dogs belonged to the Mine Detection and Dog Centre, an Afghan de-mining non-governmental organisation. It is supported and advised by DynCorp International in humanitarian de-mining operations sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the government of Afghanistan.

After the dogs’ sense of smell becomes no longer reliable enough for them to perform mine-clearance operations, they face the prospect of euthanasia.

Lloyd Carpenter, a DynCorp International project manager for the Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement program in Afghanistan, saved a group of retired dogs by placing them with expatriates.

This is the second group of mine-detection dogs DynCorp International employees have assisted. In 2006, DynCorp International technical advisors retrained 18 mine dogs for other specialties.