Monday, August 18, 2008

Dogs are so amazing

I want to call your attention to a CNN aritcle called "Dogs bust inmates using cell phones to carry out crimes". Here's part of what it says:

Chante Wright was set to testify against a career criminal when she was gunned down on the streets of Philadelphia in January. Investigators believe it was a hit ordered from prison, by an inmate using a cell phone.

Authorities across the country are trying to prevent similar crimes from occurring.

"We owe it to the victims to not allow inmates to continue to run their enterprises from behind our bars," says Maj. Pete Anderson, who commands a canine unit that sniffs out cell phones inside Maryland prisons.
...
"I first really wasn't too keen on the idea. I didn't think they'd be able to separate the odor of the phone versus a lot of the stuff that's in the institution," says K-9 trainer Lt. Rodney Jordan. But to his surprise, he had a dog trained and ready for duty in just six weeks.
...
Trainers say that every item has a unique signature scent that dogs can pick up, so they can distinguish the scent of a cell phone from the smell of a television set or other item.

The program has been so successful that Maryland officials say prison officials from several other states have contacted them requesting help in training dogs.

The three dogs being used are a Belgian Malinois, a German shepherd mix and a springer spaniel. In addition, corrections officers have 20 drug dogs and 11 patrol dogs.

We owe dogs so much. It's simply beyond me how anyone could abuse a dog or fail to try to rescue a dog who's in trouble.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:34 PM

    Hmmmm,. Dont they have electronic equipment that blocks cell phone signals? Wouldnt that be simpler?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good point, Anonymous. I don't know the rationale behind that.

    I still think it's amazing that dogs can do that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think they can block calls from coming through to cell phones, but text messages often make it through when calls won't.

    ReplyDelete

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