Recent News

11-08-2004, To sniff and protect

By Marion Fischel, The Jerusalem Post

'Pups For Peace' gives the capital's security services a leg up.

Make no bones about it: Jerusalem's streets and buses just got safer.
This thanks to the increased presence of security dogs and their handlers on
Jerusalem's buses and street corners, particularly around the areas of Strauss
and Yaffo.
The dogs, who are charged with the task of sniffing out explosives, represent
the success of the Pups For Peace (PFP) program, which recently received
$500,000 from the Jewish Agency, raised by the United Jewish Communities (UJC)
Israel Emergency Campaign.
A few prominent UJC community members (dubbed the 'Prime Minister's Mission')
flew in to participate in the inauguration of the program at the Kibbutz Ramat
Rachel Hotel on Sunday morning.
They were joined by PFP dog-handler teams, who wowed the crowd with an official
demonstration.
A sampling of people sat waiting for a bus, while a sniffer dog wound his way
through the crowd. After a brief moment, a clear bark emerged, signaling one man
out. When asked to open his bag, a gun was revealed.
In a second demonstration, an individual attempting to board a bus froze in his
tracks by the bark of another sniffer dog, whose handler then alerted a member
of the security forces. The policeman, in turn, ordered the man to raise his
hands. Underneath the sweater an explosives belt was uncovered.
PFP is a non-profit organization which has purchased, trained and deployed 10
dog-handler teams on public transportation throughout Jerusalem. Ten more teams
operate in central locations, including Beersheba and Netanya.
The $3 million program currently employs 17 professionals (14 of them dog
trainers) and boasts 150 trained dogs, 50 of whom detect explosives at bus
stops. Their handlers are employed by the Transportation Ministry and Egged;
other handlers serve in the Israeli Police and the IDF's Oketz ('Sting') Canine
Unit.
A PFP team was instrumental in preventing an attack on Jerusalem's Caf Caffit on
July 14, 2004, when a handler and his two dogs, named Heidi and Moshe Herzl,
were called to the scene from their patrol near Davidka Square.
At the same time, sniffer dogs Mira and Rubin were brought by their handler from
Emek Refaim to provide reinforcement.
Although the organization will not reveal details of how the attack was
thwarted, it is clear that the PFP teams, which work in eight-hour shifts and
change their location every two hours or so, saved the day.
The concept of PFP came to Professor of Economics and Director of the Santa
Monica-based Milken Institute Glenn Yago, after the Pessah massacre at the Park
Hotel in Netanya in 2002.
"At the time we heard the news [of the bombing] we were [sitting at the seder
table] reading the passage which says that no dogs barked and that is how the
Jews were able to leave Egypt," recalls Yago. "That is how the idea for PFP was
born."
Yago released his idea on the Internet and was soon joined by expert dog trainer
Mike Herstik, as well as Gilbert Sherer and Ronnie Lotan (PFP's Israeli Director
and General Manager, respectively).
PFP began training dogs in a temporary facility in southern California in
December 2002.
A year later, the first trained sniffer dogs arrived in Israel alongside 12 tons
of kennel equipment from the U.S., and the PFP inaugurated its new training
facility at an old army base in the Golan.
The facility's first canine graduates were not used for public transportation.
It wasn't until the IDF and the Israeli Police reported the effectiveness of the
dogs that PFP received the go-ahead from the Internal Security and
Transportation ministries.
Spurred by statistics indicating that 60 percent of terror attack casualties are
bus passengers, a pilot experiment was carried out in Netanya in cooperation
with the local transportation authorities and Egged. The pilot's success
resulted in several requests for dog-and-handler teams to be dispatched to bus
stops in locales across the country.
Avi Basri, one of PFP's most experienced trainers and head of the organization's
Jerusalem operations, calls the PFP "the first civilian training program,"
because trainers are neither IDF troops, nor policemen.
In their job description, dog handlers are not obliged to approach suspected
terrorists; that is the exclusive responsibility of security forces, who are an
integral element of bus stop security.
That's not to say, however, that the dog handlers don't have a risky job. One
sniffer for an IDF anti-terror unit, three-year-old Belgian Shepherd Tosca, was
injured in action during a mission in the Hermon this past May.
One soldier was killed and six others wounded during the attack, including
Tosca's handler, who had been with her for two years - ever since they first met
at the PFP training camp in California.
Less fortunate than her handler, Tosca eventually died from her injuries and was
buried with full military honors at the Canine Unit base cemetery.
"The Oketz Unit behaves towards its dogs as if they were soldiers from the
ranks," comments Dr. Gil Shavit, a veterinary surgeon from the base's clinic.
The dogs - Labrador Retrievers and German and Belgian Shepherds - are purchased
in Europe. They then undergo a four-month training period. Two daily 45-minute
training sessions are prefaced by a brisk walk. Dogs then continue their
training, which is all in the form of games.
The dogs, whose teams are each estimated to be worth around $25,000, receive top
treatment. Their kennels are washed out daily and the dogs are fed twice a day.
Any little scratch a dog may incur during the course of his training, is treated
immediately.
"The costs for each dog are high," says Yago, "but the number of lives that can
be saved from terrorist attacks is what is important. Dogs can smell and
recognize what the human eye cannot see."
Yago expresses hope that private businesses will eventually adopt the concept
and there will be dogs at entrances to all public places.
His dream may just come true, since PFP's goal is to supply Israel with
approximately 100 dogs every year over a period of three years, at an estimated
annual cost of $1.5m.
"This program is very important," concludes National Campaign Chair of the UJC
Mark Wilf. "It is just one element of hopefully making the daily lives of the
Israeli people more normal and free of fear. Thanks to what these dogs do, we
hope one day to be able to ease these anxieties completely."

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