Dog awarded for using super skills to save wildlife

Louise rescued Henry after he was rejected by five different homes

Henry the dog was rejected by five different homes for his energetic nature, but his personality has now earned him a special award.

The 10-year-old Springer Spaniel has been named Animal of the Year by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) for his ability to help catch criminals and save wildlife.

The award recognises the unsung heroes of animal welfare.

After his difficult start in life, Henry was eventually adopted by Louise Wilson, the owner of Conservation K9 Consultancy in Wrexham, when he was eight months old.

The pair, together with the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), work to locate birds of prey which have been stolen or killed by criminals, including some of the UK's most threatened species.

Henry's skills have helped police track down people involved in wildlife crime.

He's able to locate bird carcasses and even small monitoring tags which have removed from birds.

Det Insp Mark Harrison, from the NWCU, said Henry's work is crucial in helping police to gather evidence for potential crimes.

"If we don't recover anything, the investigation grinds to a halt," he said.

"We had a search recently and underneath a load of heather where you couldn't see a thing from the surface, Henry recovered a tiny bird's skull."

Det Insp Harrison also said intelligence showed that offenders are "scared and worried" by the work being done by animals like Henry.

Henry's energetic nature helps him solve crimes

Henry is now able to detect seven different scents, including pine martens, otters and hedgehogs, and this helps conservationists monitor different wildlife.

Louise says Henry's strong will and "unruly energy" make him the perfect detection dog.

"He's got so much energy and drive and as soon as we trained him for conservation detection we were able to give him focus," she said.

Henry was named Animal of the Year by the International Fund for Animal Welfare

Henry was honoured at the 25th Animal Action Awards in London on Thursday, alongside human conservations from around the world.

Wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan, who presented the awards, described Henry as a "superdog", praising Louise's work training him.

"To be able to train a dog like Henry to do the work that he does needs an enormous amount of time, patience, dedication and commitment," she said.

"The two of them together are a formidable team for wildlife protection."