Slashdot Mirror
South Korea Deploys Cloned Drug-Sniffing Dogs
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that six puppies cloned from a Canadian-born sniffer dog in late 2007 have reported for duty to check for drugs at Seoul's Incheon International Airport after completing a 16-month training course. The customs agency says clones help to lower crime-fighting costs as it is difficult to find good sniffer dogs. Only about 30% of naturally-born sniffer dogs make the grade, but South Korean scientists say that could rise to 90% using the cloning method. The puppies, each called 'Toppy' for 'Tomorrow's Puppy,' are part of a litter of seven who were cloned from a 'superb' drug-sniffing Canadian Labrador retriever called Chase at a cost of about $239,000. 'They are the world's first cloned sniffer dogs deployed at work,' says customs spokesman Park Jeong-Heon. 'They showed better performances in detecting illegal drugs during the training than other naturally-born sniffer dogs that we have.'"
"Canine cloning runs contrary to the Kennel Club's objective 'To promote in every way the general improvement of dogs' ... Cloning cannot be used to make improvements because the technique simply produces genetic replicas of existing dogs." [src]
So what they have now are the best drug dogs they will ever have, their abilities can't improve any - they will be the same as the dog they were cloned from.
No, that was shown with cats a while ago :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC_(cat)
There are two things about the illegal drugs situation that the South Koreans should consider.
One is that there are basically three types of illegal drugs: the addictive opiates, the 'boosters' activity-increasing drugs like amphetamines/cocaine, and the mind-expander/entertainment/recreationals like marijuana/hashish/cannibus or the psychedelics like LSD/ecstasy.
The recreationals are basically a political problem. They are only a problem because the politicians say that they are. For society, they are neutral. They increase creativity and productivity in some people, but not in most people. Korea would probably be a little better off if the politicians look the other way at any weed/psychedelic use. Roughly 25% of middle class Americans have been using these drugs at various times of their lives with no real ill-effect on society. The positive effects of these drugs on creativity and their ability to dissipate anti-government political activity means that their use wouldn't be a real problem for Korea. (I know you disagree, but this is the basic reality of the situation). Of course, it will never happen in Korea.
The boosters are a problem when the manager class in Korea quietly encourages or ignores their use in order to get people to work longer and harder, two or more jobs. This is their main function in the USA. These are harmful substances and will destroy public health with their wide use. The government should discourage the manager class from promoting these drugs onto their workers. Of course, it will never happen in Korea.
The real danger is the addictive opiates such as heroin. They change basic body chemistry to make it nearly impossible to stop taking them after the addiction transformation, which happens after a few weeks of constant use. Then huge powerful corrupt criminal organizations form to supply this drug to addicts. The addicts provide the drug to non-addicts to get new customers to pay for their own addiction. There is huge increase in theft and prostitution resulting from the introduction of heroin.
South Korea lives next door to a huge violent corrupt criminal organization across its northern border. When these criminals decide to flood the south with huge amounts of heroin, there will be little that the South Koreans can do to stop them. This would lead to a new very-bloody round of the endless Korean civil war, which nobody wants at this time. Having clone dope-sniffing dogs at the airport will do nothing to keep North Korean heroin out of the South, because the North will use tunnels and boats to bring the heroin into the South. It is possible, but not likely, that a renegade force of the North Korean army will start a drug trade in the South to get money and power for their group. It is more likely that these splinter North Korean criminal gangs will supply illegal booster-types drugs to Japan and the Philippines.
Primarily the dope-sniffing dogs will be used to find harmless amounts of recreational/entertainment drugs on tourists and western backpackers. Then the authorities will make a big show of imposing draconian and brutal penalties on these unlucky but harmless tourists in order to show that they are 'tough' on 'decadent western influences and lifestyles'.
However if it weren't for decadent western influences and lifestyles, they would still be as dirt-poor and primitive as they were in 1953. Just another example of Asian duplicity, hypocrisy, and cruelty. Ever wonder why millions of American college graduates are trying to move to crime-ridden neighborhoods in Asian cities in order to open little grocery stores so that their children can have a hope of a better future?