12 sniffer dogs get the pink slip

Mumbai: A year after hiring 12 untrained sniffer and guard dogs, in a desperate rush to spruce up security after the 26/11 terror attacks, the CISF has thrown all of them out.
The reason they claim: the untrained dogs were less intent on sniffing out suspects and more proficient at biting. The exercise in the past year has left one CISF personnel, one passenger and two handlers injured.
In fact, barely a month after being hired, a German Shepherd had attacked trainer Sanjeev Darshan, 25, at the airport on February 23, 2009. Now, not wanting to suffer any more damages, the CISF returned all the dogs to the company they were hired from and have now brought up their own dog squad.
A CISF officer said, “A sniffer dog has to detect explosives or suspect substances. But these dogs were not trained properly and we never got any results from their skills, if there were any. To compound problems, they were too hostile and aggressive.”
The dogs had been hired in January 2009, over a month after the 26/11 attacks, from Thane-based Marshal Dog Training Centre. However, a year after struggling with the centre’s fierce canines, the CISF sent them back home and raised its own squad this year.
15/03/10 Preety Acharya/Mumbai Mirror

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Categories: Airports Mar 2010