Meet the newest deputy for the Branch County Sheriff's Office, Nyx!

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Last week, Branch County Sheriff John Pollack swore in his department's newest deputy. Special K-9 Deputy Nyx is a purebred Bloodhound.

Bloodhounds are large scent hounds that were originally bred for hunting large game and tracking people in the middle ages. The breed is celebrated for its ability to identify and track human scents for long and even treacherous distances. This breed's scent ability is so honed that combined with their tracking instinct they have been known to locate a human subject days after initially going missing.

It should be no surprise that law enforcement agencies continue to utilize Bloodhounds today. Bloodhounds are used to track escaped prisoners, missing people, and lost pets.

K-9 Deputy Nyx has already proven herself on the job. According to the Branch County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Nyx successfully tracked her first missing person at just 10-months-old. She stayed on the correct path and provided her partner with the information that led to the safe recovery of a missing person.

The sheriff's office says Deputy Nyx took her certification test in April 2021 in Kentucky with KSTAR (Kentucky Scent Tracking Air Rescue) and passed. She will work as a special deputy on search and rescue calls, alongside her sister K-9 Xenia.

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