SFGate article: These adorable dogs are fighting California plant poachers

From desert cactus to endangered orchids, these dogs do it all

By James Bartlett

Aug 12, 2024

The mission took place in the early morning on a vast private ranch in Williams, Arizona, and the operatives were excited and ready.

After being given their “target,” the team separated into two groups. Finally, after three months of intensive training, Circe, a black Labrador retriever, and Muon, a Belgian malinois, were taken out in the field to hunt for Pediocactus peeblesianus subsp. fickeiseniae, a small cactus around three inches tall and one-and-a-half inches in diameter.  Read more…