Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.

Follow us online: Facebook Twitter Flickr

National Museums Liverpool Blog - Sniffer dogs return to the museum

 Friday, August 06, 2010

Sniffer dogs return to the museum


Friday 06 August 10

woman in uniform with a dogA sniffer dog and handler at the museum

The sniffer dogs from UK Border Agency are once again demonstrating their unique sniffing skills at Seized! over the summer holidays. If you'd like to see them they will be at the museum every Thursday afternoon during August - full details are on the website in the Seized! events programme.
 
I know that the sniffer dogs are extremely well trained but I hadn't realised before that each one specialises in searching for specific things. Karen Bradbury, curator of the UK Border Agency National Museum explains:



"This week (5 August 2010) Kass, a German Pointer Labrador Cross, was here with his handler. He finds products of animal origin - meat, fish and endangered species.

An example of an unusual case was earlier this year in 2010 when the dog unit found a birds nest in the luggage of a couple travelling from China. They were arriving into Manchester Airport.

Bird's nest soup is a Chinese delicacy. Savoury swallow nest soup has been made for over 400 years, containing real birds nests. However there are two types of swallow - a red and white - both of which are endangered and protected under the international convention called CITES. The red variety is rarer, and it can cost up to £2000 - £3000 to buy a single nest constructed using the spit of this endangered bird. A trader captures the bird and collects its spit, which was then used to knit the nest together.

The sniffer dogs are back on Thursdays in August 2010. On 12 August it's Roddie with his handler. Roddie is an English Springer Spaniel who searches for drugs and cash. More details about when the dogs are at the museum is on the Seized! website. Come and hear more fascinating stories from the lives of the dog team."


Posted by Sam | 06/08/2010 12:13   | Comments [0]

Post a comment

All comments require the approval of the site owner before being displayed.
Name
E-mail

Comment (HTML not allowed)  

Enter the code shown (prevents robots):

Live Comment Preview

By posting your comment you have agreed to the terms and conditions below

Terms & Conditions

National Museums Liverpool welcomes your comments. All comments are moderated and will only be published if they adhere to the following standards. The editors reserve the right not to publish comments which they deem inappropriate:

  1. Our Maritime Archives and Library deals with enquiries relating to all aspects of Liverpool's maritime history including ships, passengers, seafarers, shipping and maritime companies. Their web pages describe the information they hold and how to get in touch, along with useful research guides on popular subjects such as tracing seafaring or emigrant ancestors. Please do not submit requests for this type of information as comments on this blog.
  2. Specific enquiries, as opposed to comments on blog posts, should be submitted using our contact system. Please note that we do not provide valuations.
  3. Posts must be text only and under 1000 characters (including spaces). Html code, links or multimedia are not permitted.
  4. We will aim (but do not guarantee) to publish approved comments within 72 hours although there may be delays over weekends and during public holidays.
  5. Please do not post anything that is libellous, abusive, obscene, prejudiced or unlawful.
  6. Do not contravene any rights to privacy (such as personal contact details), copyright or trademark legislation.
  7. Please do not spam or post commercial promotional information.
  8. By posting you agree that you are wholly responsible for the content that you post. Although the blog comments will be moderated National Museums Liverpool will publish comments in the good faith that they comply with the law.
  9. By posting your comment you agree that it may be reproduced by National Museums Liverpool online or in print without compensation.