US temporarily stops deploying sniffer dogs to Jordan, Egypt after numerous deaths

The United States government, for the time being, has stopped deploying sniffer dogs to Jordon and Egypt to detect bombs after several dogs lost their lives due to unnatural causes. According to reports, it was said that the loss of lives was due to a lack of care towards the dogs. A representative of the US State Department said that it was a very sad state of affairs, adding that necessary measures will be undertaken to prevent such an incident from happening in the future. The representative further added that sniffer dogs have a very important role in helping the US in their overseas counter-terrorism efforts.

Sniffer dogs died due to lack of care

According to reports, the bomb-detecting sniffer dogs were given to a few countries as part of a counter-terrorism cooperation program. However, there were main concerns with Jordan, the first country to benefit from this program, where one dog died due to negligent care and the other had to be put down after returning to the United States of America. After reports of such incidents came to light in the year 2017, the US State Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) started looking into the care of these sniffer dogs. 

According to reports, breeds such as German Shepherds, Labradors and Belgian Malinois were among the affected ones. The OIG officials looking into the matter recommended that the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security stop sending sniffer dogs to Jordon but they refused to listen to the recommendations. The OIG investigators discovered that two more sniffer dogs had lost their lives due to unnatural causes with one due to a heat stroke and the other due to poisoning by pesticides sprinkled by Jordon Police near the dog's kennel.

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Appalling reasons

According to reports, 10 dogs were sent to Egypt in 2019 and three died due to unnatural causes. One dog died due to lung cancer, one from heatstroke and the third one from gallbladder disease. This prompted investigators from the Office of Inspector General to add Egypt to their blacklist after Jordan. Incidents in Egypt and Jordon led the US State Department to put a temporary stop to providing canines to Jordan and Egypt unless and until both the countries implement stringent measures to ensure the welfare of all sniffer dogs.

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(With inputs from agencies)