§ Mr. Tim Rentonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress is being made by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in the use of guard dogs at United Kingdom ports of entry that are trained to search for and detect illegally-imported pets.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe use of dogs to detect illegally imported animals presents a number of practical difficulties, including the fact that a detector dog which came into contact with an imported animal would have to be quarantined under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food requirements, and it is not clear that their use would be effective and produce worthwhile results. However, the Customs authorities are always considering improved methods of detection and are keeping in touch with experiments in the use of dogs in this field.