Airport sniffer dogs in the dog house
Manchester Airport dogs failed to detect drugs but sniff out sausages.
Sniffer dogs at Manchester Airport failed to detect Class A drugs yet were able to locate holidaymakers' cheese and sausages, according to a new report.
The team of detector hounds were trained to search for illegal drugs, tobacco and cash, although they did not sniff out any heroin or cocaine during a six-month period studied by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
The six dogs, who cost ÂŁ1.25 million to house and operate helped seize more than 46,000 cigarettes, 60kg of tobacco, 181kg of illegal meat, and ÂŁ28,000 cash.
The report said: Heroin and cocaine were assessed as 'very high' priority, yet, according to the data provided by Border Force, the dogs had made no Class A drugs detections in the period November 2014 to June 2015.
When deployed, the POAO dog made multiple accurate detections, but most were of small amounts of cheese or sausages, wrongly brought back by returning British holidaymakers and posing minimal risk to UK public health.''
The report said while the deterrent effect of having sniffer dogs was difficult to measure, the seizures alone represented a low return on the #1.25 million spent on new kennels and the costs of operating the unit.
The report concluded there needed to be a review of which flights were targeted and how the dogs were best used