Saturday, 11 February 2017
For years, Keela was a star of the British Media. The dog from South Yorkshire Police had outstanding capacities, described in her own page, on the web site of that police force: "She (Keela) screens textiles and can pick out clothing with blood on even after it has been washed many times in biological washing powder. Offenders can’t even trick her by trying to clean their weapons, as Keela would still smell blood after attempts have been made to wash away the evidence."
A story run by The Sun, on December 2005, called Keela "UK's number one Sherlock bones". Keela was hailed as "Britain most amazing police dog", so amazing that her "salary" was higher that the one of her chief constable: "Springer spaniel Keela is so smart she is hired by other forces for £530 a day plus expenses. That is a rate of £200,000 a year, compared to the £129,963 paid to South Yorkshire’s top cop Med Hughes."
But on September 2008, the tide had turned and The Sun had another front page story, with this headline: "It’s crazy to rely on animals". What has changed, between 2005 and 2008? Keela was one of the two dogs (Eddie was the other) brought to Praia da Luz, to try to find what happened to Madeleine McCann.
The result was highly incriminating for Gerry and Kate. The dogs gave indication of scent of blood in pieces of clothes from Kate and also a cadaver scent in the car rented by the McCann, weeks after Maddie disappeared. A few months after that, a damaging video surfaced, showing Keela barking insistently close to the drivers's door of the Renault Scenic used by the McCann.
Around September 2008, the Gerry and McCann Team started a relentless campaning against the credibility of sniffer dogs - so reliable as a flip of a coin, as a mysterious John Barrett, a former Scotland Yard dog handler, put it, on a story published by The Telegraph. Interesting detail: it were the McCann who requested for the British police to bring the dogs to Praia da Luz, after they heard about their amazing capacities.
Not long after that, South Yorkshire Police deleted the page of Keela, at their website. The deleting was so complete that a search in the website for the word "Keela" has no results. Rest in Peace, Keela...
gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.co.uk
Keela
