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US Jews offer to train dogs to stop suicide bombers

By Jack Katzenell of The Jerusalem Post

July 12, 2002

JERUSALEM -- A group of American Jews has offered to train and provide sniffer dogs to Israel to help find Paliestinian suicide bombers and attack them before they kill, Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said yesterday.

The group, which calls the project "Pups for Peace," has offered to buy the dogs and set up a school in the Golan Heights to train them and their Israeli handlers, Landau said.  The group is based in Los Angeles.

"They identify with us because of the problems which we are currently facing," he told Israel Radio, adding that the group had also offered to finance the project.

More than 200 Israelis have been killed in the last two years by suicide bombers, who usually wear the explosives in a special vest.

The dogs would be trained to smell explosives at  distance and attack the bomber, pinning him to the ground before he could get into a crowd of civilians, Landau said.

"Pups for Peace" founder Glenn Yago said the goal is to train 1,000 dogs and handlers. He said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles that in the first stage, 60 dogs would be deployed, and he hopes to raise the number to at least 200 in a year.

Yago, 52, an economist, said his group is financed by donations from Jews and non-Jews. He would not say how much money was involved. He said he started the project after the March 27 suicide bombing at a Seder in Netanya, where 29 people were killed.

He said that bombing, at a hotel, "would have been an easy one for a dog" stationed at the entrance with one task--sniffing out explosives.

Landau said the main obstacle is the Israel Police is forbidden from receiving donations. The ministry is trying to get around the prohibition.

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