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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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What Thomas Paine and Jack Bogle Got Right
Your Will Can Leave Money. This Leaves Something Far More Valuable
Fast-Food Treats Your Pup Will Love
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Beef ‘n Biscuit Bake
The Daring Deception Behind D-Day
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Who Needs a Bloodhound? Meet Splash, the Super-Sniffing Otter! AN OTTER LIKE NO OTHER
The Most Adorable Detective You’ll Ever Meet Lives Underwater
We often think of search-and-rescue heroes as brave dogs sniffing out clues in rubble or skilled divers combing through the water. But one tiny otter is proving that heroes can come in unexpected packages. Meet Splash, a playful 2-year-old Asian small-clawed otter with a very unusual job. Believed to be the nation’s first trained search-and-recovery otter, Splash is helping locate evidence and human remains underwater, providing long-awaited answers and a sense of closure for families. The idea began when veteran search-and- rescue expert Michael Hadsell stumbled across an article about how otters use their remarkable sense of smell underwater. After more than four decades working with search dogs, horses, and drones, he wondered: What if an otter could do the job no one else could? As it turns out, he was onto something. Otters have an extraordinary way of detecting scents
underwater. They blow tiny bubbles toward an object and then quickly inhale them, allowing them to pick up odors that would be impossible for humans to detect. Combined with sensitive whiskers and incredible swimming skills, Splash was the perfect candidate for underwater recovery work. Training looked surprisingly familiar. Using positive reinforcement, Hadsell hid scented training objects in a swimming pool, rewarding Splash with his favorite treat whenever he made a successful find. This little otter has excellent taste, too. His reward has to be fresh salmon but only farm-raised. Wild salmon, apparently, just won’t do. Splash’s impressive skills quickly moved beyond practice sessions. After only a few months of training, he helped investigators recover a weapon connected to a decades- old murder case. He has since assisted on numerous recovery missions, helping
teams locate evidence and human remains that might otherwise have remained hidden forever. Despite his serious work, Splash is still very much an otter at heart. He swims alongside divers wearing a custom harness, eagerly grabs their masks when he’s found something important, and even has teammates, affectionately known as the “Otter Spotters,” whose job is to keep him safe from hazards like alligators while he works. Thanks to one inventive trainer and one determined little otter, families are finding answers, investigators are gaining valuable evidence, and the world has one more reason to smile.
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