Russia's only sniffer cat was killed by smugglers
posted on:
Mar '09
11
11:15am
featuring:
Rusik, the cat, walked into a police checkpoint a year ago as a stray kitten. The staff quickly adopted it, feeding it on scraps of sturgeon confiscated from smugglers. He learned the taste and scent very well. Rusik was later recruited by police at a checkpoint in the Stavropol region, bordering the Caspian Sea, to uncover illegal cargoes of the endangered fish.
A cat's sense of smell is reportedly more sensitive than a dog's. The problem usually is getting the cooperation of the cat to use that ability. As it turned out, Rusik's ability to sniff out poached fish hidden in trucks and other vehicles was so good that he had replaced the local sniffer dog. No matter how ingenious the smugglers were in their attempts to hide the fish, Rusik was always able to point his nose in the right direction and find it.
Sadly, Rusik's career was ended suddenly when he was hit by a car in which he had found smuggled sturgeon some time before.
