Mini-Cassia Cadaver dog fundraising for training

BURLEY, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —A Mini-Cassia cadaver dog and her handler are raising money for new training in order to further support law enforcement agencies in human-remains detection.

Cayvun a cadaver dog, and her handler Florence Dickens, have been working together for five years. This duo gives support to law enforcement agencies for free. Helping search for missing persons and homicide and drowning victims.

“We have worked on a couple of homicides over at Fort Hall with the FBI and the Fort Hall Tribal Police,” said Dickens.

They need to train at least 16 hours a month to stay sharp. This Saturday they were set up at C-A-L Ranch Stores in Burley, asking the community for donations to help finance some out-of-state training sessions in March.

“We are trying to raise about $3000,” said Dickens “To go to some advanced training in South Carolina on burn scenes, house fires, explosions aircraft accidents that type of thing, and then water recovery down in Pensacola Florida.”

To show Cayvun at work, Florence hid a source in a pet food aisle in C-A-L Ranch Stores and has tasked Cayvun with the job to find it. In almost no time Cayvun searched the whole aisle before laying down directly in front of the hidden source showing her handler where it was located.

“It’s a big emotional roller coaster,” said Dickens. “You are so excited that your dog has done what they are trained to do, but you also realize that that proved to that family that the person is no longer alive.”

Cayvun and Florence’s organization is called Semper Vigilans which in Latin translates to “always vigilant”, and can be found of Facebook. They are always accepting donations as they do not charge for their services.

Copyright 2021 KMVT/KSVT. All rights reserved.