After the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the consequent “war on terror” declared by the United States of America, the role of bomb sniffer dogs has grown enormously. In particular in the USA itself, where the use of four-legged animals in the busiest places of transit (ports, airports, railway stations) and on the occasion of events at risk of attack is by now widespread.
If therefore it is more and more frequent to see anti-bomb dogs at work in the United States, it is increasingly rare to see anti-bomb dogs at work of the United States, in the sense of born in the country they protect.
Only 7% of the more than 5,000 sniffer dogs used by federal agencies originated in the United States; the rest is imported, mostly from Europe. The issue has been known for years, but has returned to the news thanks to a recently published report by the Government Accountability Office.
A dog’s sense of smell is ten to a hundred thousand times better than a human’s; thanks to the higher number of olfactory receptors (about three hundred million, against our six million) and to the conformation of the brain (the part dedicated to the analysis of smells is about forty times larger than ours).
Dogs aren’t the only ones to have a literally bombproof sense of smell – elephants, mice, jackals also have it – but they are the ones that are easier to use next to a human in a highly stressful context such as that of ‘anti Terrorism. The most popular breeds are: German shepherd, Belgian Malinois shepherd, German pointer, Labrador, golden retriever, Hungarian pointer. In addition to the sense of smell, to be a good anti-bomb dog it is necessary to have a lot of courage and know how to interact well with humans.
The United States mainly buys in Germany or the Netherlands, but the fours come from Eastern countries such as Croatia or Romania which have a certain tradition in breeding and training working dogs.
A bomb sniffing dog can cost as much as $25,000. The specimens destined for the Transportation Security Administration (the agency that deals with transport security) are then subjected to further training in the United States, lasting 24-32 weeks, which can cost up to 46,000 dollars including the costs of training of its handler.
There are three problems for the USA and they are interconnected. The high price doesn’t scare countries like Saudi Arabia and China, which therefore often win the best specimens on the market in real auctions. The highest quality dogs are bred by a country like Germany, which however hardly sells them and prefers to give them to its police forces.
Finally, depending on foreign suppliers is always dangerous because the arrival of the desired “goods” – in this case the sniffer dogs – in addition to being subject to the seller’s discretion, can be interrupted due to force majeure, such as a pandemic or a war; this is what happened with Covid-19 and what is likely to happen as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is therefore not surprising that the United States wants to increase the number of domestic-born and trained bomb-sniffing dogs. In a few years we will know whether the programs launched to this end have been successful.
