FACT trains dogs to sniff out illegal DVDs

Dogs turn away from drugs to DVDs

12 May 2006 16:15 GMT / By Stuart Miles

And you though dogs only smelt each other's rear ends? Well the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), express delivery company FedEx and HM Revenue & Customs, has joined forces train two black Labradors named Lucky and Flo to sniff out illegal DVDs.

As part of a project promoted by the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), FACT instigated the training of the two pups over an eight month period to identify DVDs that may be located in boxes, envelopes or other packaging, as well as discs concealed amongst other goods which could be sold illegally in the UK.

With the DVD piracy industry worth £278m in 2005 in the UK, DVDs are often smuggled by criminal networks involved in large scale piracy operations from around the world.

The dogs are trained to be able to detect the smell of different chemicals that are used in the manufacture and production of optical CDs

While the dogs can't distinguish between pirated discs and genuine ones, they do make it easier for investigators to find the right package to examine.

For their first major live test, Lucky and Flo were put to work at FedEx’s UK hub at Stansted Airport and were immediately successful in identifying packages and parcels containing DVDs for destinations in the UK.

Full tags

Home Cinema, DVD, FACT