Malaysia 's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have jointly launched Operation Double Trouble, the latest anti-piracy effort which engages a pair of the world's first dogs trained with DVD-sniffing abilities.

A demonstration was held today at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where the two black Labrador retrievers, Lucky and Flo, successfully identified packages containing optical discs in front of the Royal Malaysian Police, Royal Malaysian Customs as well as representatives from various airlines, cargo and courier companies and the media.

During the month-long operation, the sniffer dogs will work with Malaysian enforcement officers in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang as well as border crossings to detect pirate discs.

'The government is receptive to new ideas for combating piracy,' says MDTCA minister Mohammad Shafie Bin Hj Apdal. The Malaysian authorities, which have expressed interest to set up a canine unit within the anti-piracy body, will use this opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of this new method.

Lucky and Flo were trained by a trainer in Northern Ireland known for training dogs to identify bombs. Since the success of their first major live test at Stansted Airport in the UK, the two dogs have been on a world tour which brought them to the US, Hong Kong and Dubai.

Topics