San Diego County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures (AWM) has doubled its efforts to find unmarked packages containing plants, fruit, and live animals that are detrimental to production agriculture and backyard growers alike. Funding through Section 10201 of the Farm Bill, The Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention fund, allowed AWM to add a second detector dog team. In January 2010, Drake, a male black lab mix, joined the department's first detector dog, Friday, a female black lab mix. Together with their handlers, Friday and Drake perform daily inspections at commercial shipping terminals such as FedEx and UPS. Driven by the possibility of an edible reward, both dogs work their way through rivers of packages sniffing for the scents they have been trained on. Once they respond to a package, it is quickly opened and inspected for anything that is prohibited. All plants, fruit or animals that are prohibited from entry into California are appropriately handled to prevent any harm to local plants, animals, and the environment. Many of the packages found by Friday and Drake have no markings on them that would let an inspector know they contained plants, fruit or live animals. This is where the nose is most effective! Friday and Drake have been trained to respond to a wide variety of plant and animal scents for which they are rewarded with treats from their handlers.
With two dog teams, AWM is able to cover more terminals and increase the number of inspections of packages that may carry potential pests. In 2010 alone, Drake, Friday and their handlers inspected 10,571 marked packages, 747 unmarked packages resulting in 445 notices to shippers for violations of the California Food and Agricultural Code.
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