Dogs have a nose for pirate movies, music

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — They're black, wear yellow coats and have a nose for pirate movies and music: meet Lucky and Flo, two Labradors trained to sniff out not drugs or explosives, but the polycarbonate contained in DVDs and CDs.

The four-year-old dogs can't tell the difference between a legal disk or a pirated one, but they do have a knack for ferreting out disks packed in cases labelled "Alaskan King Crab" or "Automobile Spare Parts," or hidden behind a thick wall in a warehouse.

The canines' noses have netted international customs officials millions of bogus discs and allowed them to arrest dozens of suspected smugglers of counterfeit goods.

"They are so good at their jobs than a Malaysian pirate syndicate put a bounty on the dogs heads," said Michael Buchan,...