Fun Fact

Ginny and her new handler Jess are one of the nation’s newest Detector Dog teams at the border, having just graduated after being paired.

They had a great first day on the job in July when they found not only one, but two risk items coming through the international mail centre.

The two wrongly labelled (mis-declared) packages were imported from the United States and China. One contained a live plant in soil, and the other dried flowers with seed heads. As kiwifruit growers will be well aware, live plants and dried/preserved plant material from overseas can bring in diseases, pests, and contaminants that can spread and be harmful to our primary industries and our precious ecosystem.

Both parcels have been destroyed in line with biosecurity guidelines and the importers were sent educational letters to help prevent it from happening again in the future.

Needless to say, Ginny had a great day at the office and was apparently rewarded accordingly!