Explosives Detection Canine Teams Increase at Airports and Rail Systems, but Coverage Is Still Thin

Finding hard statistics about government canine programs can be difficult. The Secret Service, for instance, considers the number of explosives detection canine teams it deploys to be sensitive information. Most government websites provide rather generic information with cute pictures of puppies that will be trained for various purposes, but say little about numbers and costs. The Government Accountability Office has, however, issued some reports...

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Police Dogs Never Quit Even If They're Fired, or How to Ruin Your Daughter's Party

The alert of a narcotics detection dog can be a scary thing. In an aggressive alert, the dog might bark and growl, but it is generally at the end of a lead while the other end is being held a police handler. Imagine your household pet suddenly alerting to strangers on the street, or guests in your home. A resident of New Paltz obtained a large mixed breed dog from a local SPCA. Afraid the dog might run away, she asked her vet to chip the dog. The vet, before beginning the procedure, scanned the dog and found there was already a chip at the...

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U.S. v. Stevens, Animal Cruelty, and Proposed Legislation Criminalizing Sales of Animal Crush Videos

The U.S. criminal code, at 18 U.S.C. 48, imposed a fine and potential imprisonment for five years for anyone who “knowingly creates, sells, or possess a depiction of animal cruelty with the intention of placing that depiction in interstate commerce or foreign commerce for commercial gain.” Exceptions were provided for a depiction that has “serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, or artistic value.” A depiction of animal cruelty was defined as “any visual or auditory depiction, including any photograph, motion-picture...

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Should Co-Worker's Asthma Trump Employee's Need for Service Dog?

An article appearing in the New York Times of May 11, 2010, describes an employee of the City of Indianapolis who is allergic to paprika with a reaction potentially so severe that it could be fatal. Steven Greenhouse, "When Treating One Worker's Allergy Sets Off Another's." The employee, Emily Kysel, obtained a service dog trained to alert her to the presence of paprika by jumping on her. The dog cost $10,000. The city initially permitted her to bring this dog to work but a fellow employee, allergic to dogs, suffered an asthma attack. Ms. Kysel’s...

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Scent Identifications and Lineups in U.S. Courts

Canine scent identifications in the U.S. began with tracking cases where the perpetrator was encountered along the trail and the dogs alerted to him. Sometimes the alert followed a failed effort to track where the suspect was already in custody or in a police station. Identification in a police station is sometimes called a station identification. Formal scent lineups do not appear in U.S. legal decisions until the 1970s, unlike Germany and the Netherlands, where cases were described from the early 1900s. Most, perhaps all, of the scent lineups...

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