DES MOINES, Iowa — It probably seemed cute and adorable to see Ozcar tearing down the hall in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, hot in pursuit of a scent.
But it was deadly serious business for the young beagle and for the agricultural security of North America.
“Last time we worked, he chased somebody down for 50 feet for a ham sandwich,” said specialist Sari Hall of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, the handler of four-year-old Ozcar, in an interview at the World Pork Expo.
As Hall spoke, Ozcar sat dutifully, knowing it was a work day. He met hundreds of hog producers and pork industry people as he demonstrated the importance of keeping banned food out of the U.S. to protect American farmers from animal and plant diseases and pests.
Beagles are employed in U.S. and Canadian airport passenger areas to catch food products that can’t be imported. Labrador retrievers are often used in cargo areas because they’re bigger and can get on top of bulky containers.
Beagles have an incredible sense of smell housed in their long snouts, and they’re also “super-cute with those long floppy ears,” Hall notes.
Being cute allows them to sniff out, approach and confront food carriers without giving them heart attacks. Most food caught is innocently possessed.
“Ninety-nine percent of these people just don’t know,” said Joe Scheele, the California agricultural liaison for the Customs and Border Protection Agency. “They’re coming across. They just don’t understand the risk.”
And the risks to farmers are enormous. Hog farmers are terrified that African swine fever may appear on the North American mainland. Foot-and-mouth disease is also an ever present threat. Many other animal diseases are floating around other parts of the planet.
The U.S. is always worried about fruit and vegetable diseases, which could affect the multibillion-dollar industries in California and Florida, but other crop diseases can enter with passengers as well.
The dogs catch a lot of contraband food. Ozcar found meat from an endangered pangolin — scaly anteater — concealed in one passenger’s belongings. He has found plants, fruit, vegetables and meat.
The O’Hare team of dogs led to 21,248 food seizures in 2021 and 22,656 in 2022. Hitch, one of the Labradors in the cargo area, found plants hidden in containers claiming to be children’s toys.
Betty, a beagle, found sausages concealed in diapers.
Bouma, the top beagle in U.S. service, found mangoes professionally sealed in cans claiming to be soup.
An early triumph for Ozcar was finding “birds nest,” which is regurgitated food formed by birds into nest shapes. It was concealed in professionally sealed packages claiming to be vermicelli.
The dogs are not the product of a sophisticated U.S. government effort to breed genetically superior detector canines. Most are rescues, as is Ozcar.
The dogs are sent to a training academy in Georgia, where their worthiness is assessed. Lucky dogs get exhaustive training from U.S. Department of Agriculture staff on the main smell categories, which are apple, citrus, mango, beef and pork. Customs and Border Protection agents such as Hall apply to become part of the program. If they are accepted, they too are trained by USDA staff, and paired with a dog.
The dogs work until they are about nine years old, when age or behaviour problems tend to begin appearing. At that point they are allowed to retire.
Hall is going to adopt Ozcar once his working days are done, but for dogs that can’t be adopted by their partners, there is never trouble finding a home. There’s a waiting list.
“Usually someone at the airport will snatch them up,” said Hall.
Ozcar has been sitting perfectly during the interview with Hall and Scheele, but soon he’ll be in frenetic action. For the enlightenment of hundreds of people at the main World Pork Expo luncheon, a demonstration has been set up: dozens of boxes and bags have been arranged in front of the hall, one of which contains a banned food product.
Ozcar will be sent to find the hidden threat, which turned out to be no challenge at all.
It’s something he does hundreds of times per day on the front line in the war against foreign agricultural disease.
