Page 342 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
substances such as narcotics, explosives, or any other target sent. There are different disciplines, and care is taken in selecting the correct breed for the right job. The breed of dog selected is predominantly a gun dog breed as these have a proven track record – although this is not always the case. The Belgian Malinois breed does make an extremely good and reliable Search dog; they are the breed selected for the High Assurance Search Dog.
Dogs are trained using operant and classical condi- tioning. A dog that gets rewarded at the right time is a dog that understands that it has done a good job. If a reward is withheld from the dog, this informs it that it must work a little harder. The keystone to training is, of course relationship, between dog and trainer; this does not come easy and takes time, which is a commodity with a high price. From this however comes the trust and respect that will assist throughout the dogs training at the DATR.59
2019... Animal Decontamination Day
– First steps in Solving an Unknown Threat
Like so many good things, it all started over a cup of tea. A chance meeting with James Marman, one of the Instructors at the RAF Cadets Training Flight in Melton Mowbray, revealed he was also a Fire Fighter with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and the conversation led to a general discussion on animal decontamination.
A great deal is already known about the decontami- nation of dogs in particular, and tragically much of that knowledge has been learnt in the cold, hard environment of situations such as the 9/11 attacks. We know, or at least have a good working knowledge, of how to treat Military Working Dogs that may have been exposed to a Chemical, Biological, or Radiological (CBR) agents, but the reality is that hopefully we would never be in a situation when that knowledge would have to be used. What is less certain is what we would do with a dog, or indeed a horse, on UK soil that had been accidentally exposed to a noxious or toxic agent in the course of its duty.
With this in mind we decided that the best way to stimulate discussion and establish a base line of “what didn’t we know that we didn’t know” was to hold a scenario-based training session.
The chosen date was 16th of November 2019. Immediate assumptions were that we needed to use live animals in order that the scenarios provide solutions that were actually possible in field conditions, and that we would avoid any terminology such as “Exercise” that might inadvertently suggest that this was planning for a military scenario rather than a day-to-day incident.
Many planning meetings later...on a grey but dry morning, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue’s finest
convened on the car park at the Equine Training Squadron. One of the appliances was delayed by having to attend to a genuine accident while en route (one of the hazards of working with the emergency services!) and in the interim some ad hoc horse handling training was provided to the fire fighters. This immediately revealed a gap in their knowledge and the training in terms of approach, handling, leading etc. was very well received. This was important as horses are periodically involved in Road Traffic Incidents and no amount of courses can replace hands on experience.
Once all were in attendance a safety briefing was given about safety around horses and the scenarios began. In order to test the fire crews, they had no idea about the scenarios they were about to face. A certain suspension of disbelief was required to allow the scenario to develop but the crew’s reactions must be a realistic as possible. The first scenario involved a malicious attack on a horse in a field where an unknown substance had been thrown at the animal (sadly, this idea stemmed from a genuine attack in the previous year on a civilian horse in another part of the country). In the course of recovering the horse, the handler had also been contaminated (a liberal mix of children’s paint and ultrasound gel provided a suitably toxic looking material).
Immediate action drills started, and it quickly became apparent that the usual SOPs were not going to work. Typically, in human contamination, two appliances are parked in parallel and a hose suspended from a ladder above provide a make shift shower, tarpaulins front and back maintain a degree of modesty. The handler was instructed to strip off their outer layers into a bag, and attempt to dry decontaminate the horse using cloths, which were then also bagged. The handler and horse were then manoeuvred between the appliances without the tarpaulins and despite misgivings from the equine fraternity that the horse would go through, he behaved impeccably. As things were going so well, the pressure was ramped up by bringing in two more ‘contaminated’ horses and handlers to really test the crew. The look of dismay on the Incident Commander’s face was a thing of beauty! Due to time pressures, the second two horses did not go through full decon but the pressure identified some more potential learning objectives.
The fire fighters who were qualified Technical Rescue operatives (trained in animal rescue but not a qualifi- cation held by all fire fighters) then took the opportunity to see if they would be able to lead horses in Gas Tight Suits. These are the bright green/yellow space suits used in hazardous environments and were expected to scare the horses terribly, though again they behaved impeccably!
The scenario was called at exactly 1 hour and following a brief lunch the second scenario was started with a different crew. In this case the subject was a Military
59 Royal Army Veterinary Corps, Centenary Parade Melton Mowbray Friday 27th July 2018 Brochure #RAVC100.
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