Patron and Magawa: Two Mine-Detection Heroes

Today I will tell you about a canine sleuth and a rat-detective who risked their lives to locate landmines and thus keep countless beings safe from harm.

Let’s start with Patron, a bomb-sniffing dog-person in Ukraine (Ureign). Patron became a national hero in March 2022 when the State Emergency Service posted a video of him on social media. By May, he had discovered more than 200 bombs and landmines. In addition to his training and sensitive nose, Patron’s size is crucial to his success. At about 4.5 kilograms, he does not weigh enough to set off a landmine. And his help is sorely needed. The bombs left by the Russian military include anti-personnel landmines, which more than 160 countries have banned as signatories of the Ottawa Convention. At a ceremony in Kyiv attended by visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Shining World Leadership Award for Compassion Laureate, President Zelenskyy presented a state award for dedicated service – the Order for Courage, Third Degree – to Patron and his human partner, Mr. Iliev.

Born in 2013, Magawa was trained to find landmines by the nongovernmental organization APOPO, headquartered at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. After graduating and becoming a “HeroRAT,” he was translocated to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2016 to begin his career. At least 40,000 people there are amputees because of landmines. In his five years on the job, diligent Magawa found 71 landmines and 38 additional deadly devices, clearing over 225,000 square meters of the Cambodian countryside. APOPO’s co-founder and CEO, Christophe Cox, explains it like this: “They can screen an area of 200 square meters in half an hour, something which would take a manual deminer four days.” The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) is the foremost veterinary charity in the United Kingdom. PDSA has given medals to many types of animal-people, but Magawa was the first rat-person to receive one. He left a tremendous legacy for the people of Cambodia and the whole African giant pouched rat kingdom.