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Malaysia seeks Irish sniffer dogs

Lucky and Flo have proved a big hit in Malaysia

The Malaysian government has said it hopes to obtain a full-time pair of Northern Irish sniffer dogs trained to seek out counterfeit DVDs and CDs. Aiming to form Malaysia’s first canine anti-piracy unit, the new dogs will be a replacement for two Irish black labradors it currently has on loan.

These two dogs, Lucky and Flo, have been so successful, they have attracted death threats from Malaysian criminals.

Malaysia is one of the world’s biggest producers of illegal films and albums.

Nationwide raids

Lucky and Flo, who were trained by a Northern Ireland-based dog handler, were loaned to the Malaysian authorities by the US-based Motion Picture Association.

Since their arrival in March, they have helped Malaysian officials uncover more than 1.3 million counterfeit DVDs and CDs worth about 15m ringgit ($4.43m; £2.23m) in nationwide raids on warehouses and shops.

The dogs are able to do this thanks to being trained to sniff out the chemicals used to make DVDs and CDs.

Their police handlers then have to check whether the hidden discs they have discovered are legitimate or counterfeit.

Iskandar Halim, a senior enforcement official in Malaysia’s Domestic Trade Ministry, told the Associated Press news agency that they hoped to gain a new pair of Irish trained dogs by next year.