By EGUFE YAFUGBORHI
TRANSVERSING Nigeria where eating of wild animals, better known as ‘bush meat’ is a widespread habit, several consumers addicted to delicacies prepared of the various shades of bush meat are scarcely aware that most are caught for food by hunter dogs.

Around the forests and uncommon plains of predominantly rural Ughelli South Local Government in Delta State, able- bodied men eke a living from partnering ferocious dogs to comb the bush space for food animal on daily basis. A typical hunter dog’s day out is a game in delight. With its master armed with just a club, at most a machete, the red hot eyed dog serves the hunting partnership as the chief hunter, the master simply a support force.

Military training

Ejator Goruvwoghor, vast in the skills of dog hunting says a hunter dog does not come cheap. “In its formative months, those experienced in hunter dog training takes the animal through rigors of doubling its inborn   stamina, aggression, sensibility, strength and flair – basic attributes every successful hunter dog employs in the game,” he said.

Master dog and masters display the day’s catch

“The training takes the dog on racing through difficult bush terrains, including swamps; tree climbing, whole digging, and living on empty stomach more than normal and voice/language commands. A critical aspect of hunter dog training involves placing it on special diet, including sharpening its violent behavior and sensory ability with locally prepared herbal concoctions, some applied as eye drops. The herbal concoctions build the dog’s ferociousness and fearlessness the same way the TAB injection, popular in military training, builds fearlessness and bravery in military recruits,” he asserted.

Detective, sharpshooter combined

His words, “A trained hunter dog is an animal sniffer, tracker, chaser, pathfinder, and attacker put together. On a typical hunting day out, usually lasting from dawn to midday, a dog and its master map out a target game area. The team often made up of a couple of agile cutlasses brandishing men and two to three dogs invade the target bush area on a hunch that it could host some game. Both masters and dogs disquiet the target area to scare out the animals with the anxious dogs sniffing around.”

Acting in sharp reflexes, the hunter dog can sniff an animal from a long, hidden distance, which it traces with precision. The dog let loose on any sighted prey, tracking it tenaciously through the roughest of places till it swoops on the target with a bite strong enough to weaken or kill it before the master comes to get the catch with a commendation pat to its back for a job well done.

Grass cutters ‘re biggest prey

A daring hunter dog could take on dangerous wilds at its own perils sometimes, but in the woods of Ughelli South, grass cutters,   which embellishes most Urhobo traditional delicacies is the commonest prey to the antics of a hunter dog. Others include antelopes, porcupines and squirrels, all of which find their way to human stomachs at private homes or restaurants.

Cost-effective

The excitement and commercial gains of the daily catches makes the employment of hunter dogs not necessarily money spinning, but a respectable way to earn a living. Ejator said a regular combing of the bush with a hunter dog fetches the hunter an average N3, 000 daily aside having enough meat reserved for his own consumption.

He added that the dog option is also less cost intensive than the use of guns and bullets, which are difficult to procure by the local hunters with all the complexities in acquiring a licensed gun. All a dog master need do is providing regular feeding which comes from waste food for his dog.

Accidental shooting

“Preference for hunter dogs over is also informed by the absence of the risk of shooting innocent humans when employing guns. We hear of stories where a hunter mistook and shot his own partner or an innocent farmer dead during a hunting expedition. We don’t get such with the dog,” Ejator said.

Safe or unsafe to eat

In a society apathetic to healthy pets’ keeping, the fear of rabies and other dog related infections dangerous to humans, scare many from consuming dog- bitten meat much like bird flu scares poultry consumers. The question is how safe is it eating animals killed by hunter dogs.

A veterinarian Dr. Fidelis Mukoro, said there was   not much to worry about eating dog- bitten ‘bush meat’ if the meat is properly boiled or cooked for eating. The cooking process kills any disease condition or agent that could have been transferred to the hunted meat from the predator dog.

Cooking process

“The greater risk rests more with the dog’s master through his contact with the raw dog hunted meat. A rabies dog transfers the disease through its saliva.   When a hunter rabid dog catches a bush meat with bites on the prey, the rabies is transferred to the bitten animal. The dog master who must pick up the meat or the end consumer buying it raw could possibly get infected,” he said.

“Even at that, infectious contact by man is equally impossible unless the disease -carrying saliva comes in contact with an open wound or injury on the human handler, underscoring blood contact”, the expert said.

He, however, explained that “a rabied dog’s mental and physical condition is so abnormal that a master can hardly employ such deranged animal for the game of hunting.”