After dogs, squirrels are being trained to sniff out drugs. Is this public service or animal abuse?

Squirrels possess a keen sense of smell and are small and agile, which makes them good at searching high places for drugs.

China’s Chongqing city has trained a squad of drug-sniffing squirrels to detect the presence of illegal substances

The training of the six Eurasian red squirrels is part of a national initiative to test the use of animals other than dogs in drug-busting operations.

The rodents have not been deployed but it seems they will join the existing police dog brigade to sniff out drugs in the nooks and crannies of warehouses and storage units.

According to Yin Jin, a police dog trainer in the region, squirrels are the perfect candidates for uncovering drugs since they possess a keen sense of smell. Moreover, they are small, agile and quick, and can squeeze into smaller areas and climb to heights that would be inaccessible to dogs.

Jin added that the system used to train sniffer dogs has reportedly worked on the squirrels with “very good effects.”  Whenever a squirrel detects an illegal substance, they’re trained to scratch at its surface to alert their handler.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official publication, the People’s Daily, released a video of squirrels undertaking lab tests, which went viral on Weibo, the popular Chinese microblogging website. This video showed squirrels sniffing various surfaces and swiftly dodging obstacles.

Is using animals for public service justified?

There has been a longstanding debate on whether animals should be used for public services that refer to initiatives that benefit the entire community, such as police and fire departments, military, and paramedics.

Although unlike domestic pets and livestock that face a litany of horrible abuses from neglect to violence to torture, police dogs are generally well trained, fed, and housed.

Yet, animal activists maintain that all public service dogs are used for humans and they are “not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”

Moreover, animals in public service often face dangerous situations and can be harmed by criminals, explosives, or even the breeding process that creates them.

Furthermore, selective breeding of dogs can have negative consequences. Many puppies do not have the skills needed for public service work and end up in shelters, contributing to animal overpopulation. Inbreeding, which happens when dogs from the same family reproduce, can cause inherited health problems such as hip dysplasia, which is common in German Shepherds.

Meanwhile proponents of sniffer dogs state that canines are able to support public service entities by contributing a skill set outside of human officers’ capabilities, making them assets to the teams they serve on.

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