The Stanislaus County Insider
ALERT!
Moonshine in Stanislaus County!
The word Moonshine often conjures up images of large metal pans, an open flame and some copper tubing. This Moonshine
however has a strong work ethic, his own book, a nose to envy and a full name: Andy Moonshine Modesto Butler.
Moonshine is a purebred Bloodhound born in Lake Butler Florida on June 28th, 2008. He was donated by Child Protection Education of America to his handler Modesto resident Charles Jones. Moonshine is not just another handsome face, he is well trained and very effective in his line of work.
Moonshine was hand selected from his litter based on several specific things that his trainor and handler were looking for. A hound with a keen nose, very curious in his surroundings, content when encountering new things, and not shy. According to Charles "Moonshine stood out from his 11 littermates. He was the only liver and tan in color and was the leader of his pack. His size was already solid at 9 weeks and 25 lbs. Jeff Schetler and Kelli Collins from Georgia K9 assisted in the puppy selection and the testing process. After the selection process was made, Moonshine was on a plane on his way to California."
Charles Jones: He's trained to assist in locating missing children, alzheimer’s sufferers, and criminal suspects by trailing
their human scent. Moonshine’s initial stages of training were socialization with his new environment and exposure to new things.
We began working his first trail at 12 weeks old and it was a natural for him. His parents are both law enforcement and search and
rescue certified trailing hounds. Georgia K9 was instrumental in his foundation to begin his trailing career, and still to this day,
are a part of his routine training. Moonshine receives additional training from and is part of the National Police Bloodhound Association.
Moonshine
has been to Georgia, Colorado, and New York, for training seminars and certification. He is always in training. We train in various
communities here in Stanislaus County. We train in different environments from downtown Modesto to the rural parts of Oakdale. He
has done some type of trailing work in every city within the county at some point. We train approximately 6-8 hrs a week.
StancoInsider: What is Moonshine trained in?
Moonshine seeks professional training 1 to 2 times a year and this could be any where in the United States, as sometimes we have to travel to find a bloodhound specific trainer. When Moonshine travels because of his job, he is considered a service animal and the airlines allow him to fly in the cabin. He sometimes has to share a seat with me or if he is fortunate enough, have a seat next door that is free. He prefers to sit in the seat so he can watch what’s going on. He is a big hit on the plane as all the passengers want to come by and visit and take pictures.
Training is expensive, it averages $5,000 a week with the travel that is involved when he travels outside of California.
Moonshine’s favorite training environment involves water. He loves to trail in the swamps so here locally he enjoys the various creeks, rivers and waterways.
Moonshine is certified as a scent-trailing bloodhound. The human body sheds skins cells that we cannot see. Each person’s skins cells smell different from the next person, which is unique to them similar to a fingerprint.
The Bloodhound has a very keen sense of smell and this is due to is the glands in his nose called olfactory receptor cells. He has 4 billion in his nose, compared to just 12 million in a human. The other characteristics that assist in trailing people are the wrinkly face, the drewl, and his long ears. The wrinkly face holds the scent close in so the scents gets trapped in the folds. Bloodhounds’ drool a lot. The slobber is very sticky and sticks to everything. Moonshine doesn’t drool a lot until he starts working, then he gets some pretty good drool going. This drool re-hydrates the scent, which helps it to have more of an odor, and makes it stick to his face.
The ears are long and drag the ground. The reason for this is as the scent lays on the ground the bloodhound’s ears drag to fluff the scent up off the ground and make it more distinct for his detection. His nose gets him in trouble a lot as it never stops going, coupled with his curiosity, he can be a hand full.
StancoInsider: How has Moonshine successfully demonstrated his skill while working in the field?
Charles Jones: With Moonshines training and being in the community his abilities were getting known around the area. July 2009, Moonshine
was called upon by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office to assist in locating a missing person at the Fox Grove Fishing access.
It was late at night and all the standard search techniques were exhausted. We did some searching around and followed a trail of the
missing person. Moonshine went into the water twice and the last time had to be pulled from the water. His body language and tenacity
to get further out in the water was telling me the person was close and possibly a drowning. That morning an underwater rescue team
located the missing person in the area where Moonshine was doing his trailing.
Since July of 2009 we have had approximately
27 requests for services. These calls came from several different law enforcement agencies spanning two different counties.
We make
every effort to be free for calls of service. A lot of the time the call for service gets resolved prior to us going on scene.
The
most common call is for Alzheimer’s walk always, then followed by despondent people that have made some type suicide action. Moonshine
has been utilized to track criminal suspects as well.