The course aimed at dealing with several themes of extreme significance in order to be able to tackle the animal poisoning in a qualified and effective way. 
The course addressed the operators that will make up the 6 Anti-poison dog units the CFS will activate within the LIFE MedWolf and MIRCO-lupo projects.
With regard to the LIFE PLUTO project, the involved operators included one handler and two collaborators for each of the 6 units planned for central-southern Italy, each of them will be provided with a dog trained to search for poison. Thanks to the synergy between the LIFE PLUTO, MedWolf and MIRCO-lupo projects, the course could involve about forty units of Grosseto's Provincial Police, hosted in the facilities of the Marsiliano State Reserve put at their disposal by the Territorial Office for Biodiversity in Follonica (GR), which took care of the logistic part of the course under the direction of the person in charge, the Vice Questore Forestale Aggiunto Stefano Vagniluca. Experts from different sectors related to the illegal use of poison alternated each other during the three-day course, focusing on the available knowledge about the use of poison in Italy and on the animal species being more susceptible to this phenomenon, analyzing the possible triggering causes of the poison use and the possible precautionary and deterrent measures. They also analyzed many veterinary perspectives related to the legal management of the poisoning cases, and they showed the sanctions aspect connected with the use of poison baits, and the law and technical tools which can be applied to the investigations for the anti-poaching activities. As regards the anti-poaching measures, they also analyzed the outstanding points of a handbook for the wolf protection which is being developed within the LIFE WolfAlps project. Particular attention has been paid to the fundamental role played by the Anti-poison dog units, not only highlighting the presence and the real extent of the poison use - thanks to a continuous territorial monitoring - but also limiting its impact thanks to the identification of the toxic materials; without forgetting that the anti-poison dog units support the investigations by finding useful elements during the inspections in the crime scene and during the searches  in the vehicles and in the buildings.
Experts from the State Forestry Corps (Giancarlo Papitto, Vice Questore Forestale Aggiunto and CFS coordinator of the LIFE PLUTO project, Inspectorate General, 7th Division, and Marco Avanzo, First Director, Inspectorate General, 1st Division), from the Gran Sasso-Laga National Park (Anna Cenerini, Naturalist and project manager of LIFE PLUTO) and from the Reference Center for Veterinary Forensic Medicine (Centro di Referenza per la Medicina Forense Veterinaria) of the Istituto Profilattico Sperimentale of the regions Lazio and Tuscany (the veterinarians Rosario Fico and Erika Ciarrocca) contributed to the theoretical sessions of the training course.
The extraordinary abilities of the pair dog-handler have been showed by the handler Alessandra Magno (supervisor of the State forestry Corps at the Territorial Headquarters of Environment for the Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park), and they have been also presented through a demonstration of poison search carried out with the dogs Jonai and Dingo that, under her guidance, form the first Anti-poison dog unit activated in Italy and working since 2010.
This Anti-poison dog unit and a second unit managed by the Gran Sasso Laga Park were established thanks to the LIFE ANTIDOTO project and have by now gained a long-time experience and taken part in dozens of precautionary and emergency inspections, implemented both in the Gran Sasso Laga Park and in other places all over Italy. At present, the two Anti-poison dog units are working in the Abruzzi, thanks to the funds of the Ministry for Environment. Two experts from the spanish Guardia Civil, section SEPRONA (Servicio de Protección de la Naturaleza), the lieutenant José Antonio Alfaro (SEPRONA head of the Province of Huelva) and the Cabo Primero Francisco Velasco (SEPRONA, Province of Huelva) concentrated their actions in the inspection phase, in the collecting of evidence and in the carrying out of the investigations, also considering specific features such as the psychological profile of the poison user, the non-verbal communication and the geographical profile applied to the poisoning cases.
On the last day of the course the two SEPRONA experts, supported by Luca Festuccia from the CFS team and belonging to the LIFE PLUTO project, presented a realistic simulation of the crime scene which made it possible to carry out a very useful practical test. Divided into groups of about ten people, the participants, guided by the spanish experts, carried out a visual inspection of the structured crime scene, analyzing all the technical and investigation aspects and putting into practice what they had learned during the theoretical sessions of the training course. The experts from the National Reference Center for Veterinary Forensic Medicine were at their disposal for any question and explanation.
On the last day of the course also the Director of the 7th Central Division of the Inspectorate General of the State Forestry Corps of Rome, the First Director Raffaele Pio Manicone, and the Vice Questore Forestale Aggiunto Alessandra Baldassarri, Provincial Commander of the CFS in Grosseto took part in the work.

GALLERY

Anna Cenerini	Alessandra Mango	Rosario Fico
Erika Ciarrocca	José Alfaro Moreno (on the left) and Francisco Velasco Jimenez	Marco Avanzo
Demonstration of the LIFE ANTIDOTO Anti-poison dog unit	Practical trial	Practical trial