Yard appeals for sniffer dogs

Scotland Yard is appealing to dog owners in an effort to recruit 30 more sniffer dogs to counter the increased threat of terrorism.

Police also need the extra labradors, cocker spaniels and springer spaniels to help detect drugs smuggled into Britain via ports and airports.

Police say they will pay the market value for the dogs but hope owners will donate them.

Sergeant Ian Macparland, of the Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment, said today: "Due to the success of our dog training courses, we have a huge demand for places. The dogs will go to work in the field of drugs, currency and explosives detection."

Since 11 September, police and other agencies in America have bought a lot of dogs from breeders that are usually available to British forces.

The new dogs will work at airports, prisons and a number of other public places.

Sgt Macparland added: "For our purposes, the best dogs are the more robust, attention-seeking and naughty dogs who people feel are too much bother.

"The Met would be an ideal place for them to come and work, and we urge anyone who would like to give their dog to us to phone police."

Scotland Yard needs to boost the current number of sniffer dogs beyond 35. The announcement comes after the Met revealed it is getting rid of 32 German shepherds and halving the number of dog units from eight to four.

Sgt Macparland said these dogs could not be used for searches, adding: "We can't use the German shepherds for this type of work because they have been trained to retrieve objects, so we don't want them picking up a bomb and bringing it back to us."

Anyone who can help should call the dog procurement officer at the training facility in Keston, Kent, on 020 8649 1626 or 07768 504 510.