Four Rescued Children Pay Tribute To Heroic Sniffer Dog Lost In Colombian Jungle
Wilson, the Belgian shepherd, featured prominently in drawings by Indigenous children as they recover in hospital.
The four Indigenous siblings who were rescued last week are on the road to recovery. They were found more than a month after surviving a plane crash. While the children recover in a hospital in Bogotá, they paid tribute to their faithful canine companion. The older siblings have become well enough to pick up crayons and draw, two of those drawings have been a tribute to the rescue dog, Wilson, who is still missing in the Colombian Amazon jungle. The images were released by the Colombian armed forces, who are continuing the search for Wilson. The Belgian shepherd dog helped in leading rescuers to the location of the children.
One drawing, signed by Lesly, the 13-year-old credited with keeping her siblings alive through her knowledge of the jungle, shows Wilson between trees and a river. The second, signed by Soleiny, nine, shows the dog next to a large flower, the sun and the Colombian flag.
The children, who were traveling in a light aircraft on May 1, 2023, are aged 11 months, 4, 9, and 13 years old. It is believed that the engine on the Cessna 206 failed.
On Friday, the four children were found in the jungle, in a forest clearing 40 days after a plane crash in which three adults including their mother were killed. As per the report, they told their rescuers that for at least some of the time, they had been accompanied by a large dog. It is believed that the dog was Wilson, who was the one of the 10 sniffer dogs deployed during the search operation.
Con un dibujo entregado a nuestro Comandante @fuerzasmilcol los niños encontrados recordaron el inmenso esfuerzo de nuestros soldados y de nuestro #AmigoDe4Patas Wilson 🐕.#OperaciónEsperanza @HOMILCOL #PatriaHonorLealtad pic.twitter.com/F6DzIzD3xf
— Ejército Nacional de Colombia (@COL_EJERCITO) June 12, 2023
Wilson was last seen on Thursday, the day before the children’s rescue. “We saw him about 40 metres away and we tried to call him,” Carlos Villegas, one of the dog handlers was reported as saying by The Guardian.
“My companion drew close to him, he tried to play with him in order to grab him, but Wilson ran off”, Villegas added.
As per the report, the Belgian shepherd dog may have experienced an unsettling encounter with a predator or perhaps became confused in the unfamiliar environment. These could be a cause for change in the dog’s ordinary behavior.
Wilson is still missing and an operation to find him is ongoing. The children told rescue workers that Wilson had become skeletal without much to eat in the jungle.
#Wilson🐶 Los soldados continúan la operación para encontrar a nuestro #AmigoDe4Patas
— Ejército Nacional de Colombia (@COL_EJERCITO) June 12, 2023
La búsqueda no ha finalizado. Nuestra premisa: Ninguno se queda atrás.#PatriaHonorLealtad#OperaciónEsperanza
>>https://t.co/J90B883N6r pic.twitter.com/6hVFwuG7IK
“According to what the children told us, we can confirm that Wilson, our commando, was with them, quite emaciated and without much to eat out there in the jungle,” Gen Pedro Sánchez, told press on Saturday, The Guardian reported.
"The search is not over," the army insisted in a statement issued after the children were located last Friday, adding more than 70 soldiers remain deployed in the dense jungle to find the Belgian Shepherd.
“But our faith remains intact and we are still looking for him”, he added.
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