The United States has temporarily stopped supplying sniffer dogs with explosives to Jordan and Egypt after several deaths attributed by Washington to insufficient care, announced to the press, Monday, December 23, an official of the department of American state.
The very serious and independent general inspection of the US State Department took up the case after a report in the summer of 2017. In a first report published last September, it deplored many negligence in the care some 135 Malinois, German shepherds, labradors or other dogs trained in the detection of explosives and supplied to ten countries as part of a counter-terrorist cooperation program.
"Each death of a dog on the ground is an extremely sad event, and we will take all possible measures to prevent it from happening again.said the United States Department of State on Monday. Dogs play a crucial role in our overseas counterterrorism efforts and in saving American lives. "
135 malinois, german shepherds, labradors
It was the very serious and independent general inspection of the US State Department that took up the case after a report in the summer of 2017. In a first report published last September, she deplored numerous negligence in the care for some 135 Malinois, German shepherds, labradors or other dogs trained in the detection of explosives and supplied to ten countries as part of a counter-terrorist cooperation program.
The main concerns were with Jordan, the first beneficiary of the program, where one dog lost his life for lack of adequate care and another had to be euthanized on his return to the United States. The general inspectorate recommended that the United States government stop supplying Jordan with sniffer dogs. But the State Security Bureau responsible for diplomatic security had refused to comply.
Only here, after a new report, the general inspection continued its investigation to discover that in June and September, two other dogs had died in this same country of "Unnatural causes", one from heat stroke and the other from poisoning from insecticide sprayed into a Jordanian police kennel.
Three new dead in 2019
Deaths that could have been prevented with better care, according to his new report, which has just been published. In addition, it turned out that three of the ten dogs supplied to Egypt in 2019 also died prematurely, one from lung cancer, the second from gallbladder pathology, and the third, there too. , heat stroke.
As a result, the inspection reaffirmed its recommendation, including Amman and Cairo. This time, the State Department had to commit to no longer supplying these two countries with sniffer dogs until it was guaranteed that "Their health and well-being are assured". US diplomacy is also urged to negotiate better monitoring of its canines, while, for example, Egypt has so far prevented US officials from accessing its kennels or the airport where the animals work.
