China’s national security authorities are urging police across the country to favor the use of a home-grown dog breed over German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Malinois and Springer Spaniels, as Beijing relentlessly pursues self-reliance.
The Ministry of Public Security on Thursday urged police to help “promote the development goal of ‘international first-class’ police dog technology,” in a statement touting the Kunming dog, a wolf-dog hybrid bred in southern China for decades from Alsatians and local dogs.
“Unleashing the police potential of Kunming dogs... is an important step in China’s independent control of police dog breed resources and brand construction,” the statement added.
Photo: Reuters
The Kunming dog is not indigenous to China, but the result of decades of artificial breeding. The ministry in the 1950s opened a specialist canine breeding center in Yunnan and is working on three further indigenous dogs.
“What gives the Kunming dog its edge is that its genetic composition is relatively diverse,” zoological researcher Wang Guodong said.
The local canine is more versatile than foreign breeds, Wang said, adding that Chinese law enforcement agencies had found that foreign dogs “may excel in one particular assignment, but also feature obvious weaknesses.”
The Kunming dog is “China’s first and currently only police dog with fully independent intellectual property rights,” the statement said, adding that it was of high technological and innovation value.
The breed outperforms its foreign peers in tasks such as sniffing out narcotics and explosives, as well as tracking and apprehending suspects, a handler said.
Some Chinese police dogs were trained in German, a separate state media report said, in the belief they would respond better to that language.
“As global competition in police dog technology becomes increasingly fierce, having a stable supply of high-quality working dog breeds adapted to local environments is key,” the ministry statement said.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS