Why Hollywood movies are going to the dogs

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Man’s best friend has been enlisted in a variety of helpful roles in recent years. American K9 units first made their appearance during World War 1, when Dobermans and German shepherds served with the Quartermaster Corps. Later, nearly 4,000 dogs saw active service during the war in Vietnam. Since then, we’ve seen hounds used to sniff out drugs and illegal immigrants. Now the dogs are interested in movies, particularly pirated ones.

An alliance of film industry groups that includes the Motion Picture Association of America and the Federation Against Copyright Theft has revealed the first dogs trained to detect CDs and DVDs in luggage and packages. The hope is that the dogs may be able to alert police to large stashes of pirated movies.

Two Labradors named Lucky and Flo, working at London’s Stansted airport, have been taught to identify the scent of compact discs. Customs officials hope the dogs will one day signal a “hit” only when they detect large numbers of discs – a dead giveaway to the likely presence of pirated movies.

The movie industry has recently been trying a host of tactics to crack down on movie piracy. In one recent initiative, the MPAA disclosed that it had begun training cinema staff to spot audience members surreptitiously using camcorders to illicitly copy movies in auditoriums. A handful of people have so far been caught in California. The movie they were copying? Mission Impossible III.

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