Julio Perez was just 12 when his whole life changed. One day, as he played in a field of rabbits, he spotted something in the grass. Thinking it was a toy, he bent to pick it up.

What he found that day was no toy. It was a land mine buried during Nicaragua's civil war between 1978 and 1990. It sent sharp pieces of metal and plastic into Julio's face and body, costing him his left arm and eye.

"Every half hour, another person is hurt by a mine," says Perry Baltimore. "I'm dedicated to stopping tragedies like that." Baltimore, a retired army colonel, is president of the Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI). MLI's mission is to clear the earth of leftover land mines. And the way they do it is with dogs.

MLI helps train dogs to sniff out explosives. The dogs and their human partners work in countries such as Ethiopia, Thailand, Armenia, and Sri Lanka. "Dogs do a much better job than metal detectors," says Baltimore, "because mines today are mostly plastic. Dogs also have an advantage over robots and mine-detecting machines. They can get around tricky spots, like woods and hills, that are off-limits to big equipment."

What about the hazards of working in minefields? Is it fair to put dogs at risk? Baltimore explains, "The dogs are well-trained, and their sense of smell is excellent. As soon as they detect the scent of a mine, they sit still. They stop before they're in danger of stepping on a mine. Human workers then fence off the area and remove the mine."

Thanks to MLI and other charities, Julio Perez received medical care in New York. Back home with his family, he now has artificial eye and arm that make life a little easier.

Training mine detection dogs takes time and money! Learn how kids have helped—and how you can help too! Click here.