Czechoslovakia's all dog mail delivery team

March 2, 1981

Meet Aik, Alf, Alma, Art, Ben, Cisa, and Don -- Czechoslovakia's all-dog mail delivery team. The post office in this north Bohemian mountain resort has been using the dog team for the last two winters with great success.

The CTK news agency reports that in snowstorms in which even snowmobiles failed, the seven dogs delivered letters, newspapers and parcels on a 20-mile run every day.

The dogs are offsprings of a Slovak female sheep dog and a male of Canadian origin, the report said.

Their breeder, Petr Hanzlik said he intends to develop a hardy breed out of his team to be used in mountainous regions to pull sleds for avalanche rescue operations, to help shepherds and also for sporting purposes.