If you happen to be flying through an airport in Yunnan, the Chinese province bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, you may be greeted by several sniffer dogs. Rather than searching for narcotics being trafficked out of the Golden Triangle, however, these dogs have their snouts set on another category of illegal goods: wildlife products. TRAFFIC reports: To qualify for the novel role in Chinese wildlife trade enforcement efforts, the three canines and their trainers underwent months of intensive training at Ruili Drug Detector Dog Base, part of the Anti-smuggling Bureau of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC). Following the training, the dogs had to each pass a stiff test to locate wildlife products concealed in a variety of locations including a container, on an airport luggage conveyor belt and at a postal centre. As you can see in the video example above, the Labradors aced their final test. The dogs are trained to pick out the scent of some of the most sought-after and commonly trafficked illegal goods, such as tiger parts, rhino horn, pangolin scales and live turtles, TRAFFIC reports. If all goes well, more sniffer dogs will be turning up at additional ports of entry throughout China.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 18:40:21 +0000
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