Pets
fromwww.npr.org
3 days agoOpinion: A well-deserved statue for a hero rat
Magawa, a rat, was honored for detecting land mines in Cambodia, saving lives and earning a statue for his contributions.
"Magawa was one of the best rats we've ever had," said Michael Raine, a program manager in Cambodia for Apopo - a Belgium-based nonprofit that trains animals to detect land mines. "Magawa was calm and focused ... he was gentle and friendly with his handlers. He just had the perfect temperament."
She explained that the exercise was to prepare for a real-life scenario, when a jacket falls off a chair and onto a dog. 'You wouldn't want them to get up, make a scene,' Gray said. The recent training class was for student members of a college chapter for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to people with vision impairments.