Paul Kirk
Smuggling. The very word conjures images of drug dealers and hardened criminals. But in the United States, a special squad of dogs is trained to separate South African travellers from their smuggled biltong.
Owing to restrictions on uncooked meat and vegetables the US does not allow biltong to be imported. That means South African visitors have to accept the American equivalent – beef jerky – or run the gamut of the biltong dogs trained by the US Department of Agriculture.
British Customs has also trained beagles and spaniels to specialise in sniffing out biltong, drowors and proteas.
US airports have about 60 dogs trained to smell out biltong on South African flights. And they meet nearly every flight with South Africans – and biltong – on board.
Sandy Steward, a co-ordinator of the programme in Orlando, Florida, said that, on average, the dogs find 10kg of biltong on every 747 flight – assuming the plane is full of South Africans.
The dogs have been used for 16 years and have uncovered tons of the dried meat – all of which has been destroyed by incineration.
A trip to Durban International airport found that biltong sellers there claim their vacuum-packed biltong will make it past the sniffer dogs. “We sell lots of the stuff,” says Prem Naicker. “In the special pack the dogs cannot smell it. We tell tourists this. It is a real selling point.”
However, a dog expert told the Mail & Guardian a different story. Duncan MacNicol, commander of the police dog unit in Durban, said: “No way, a dog will smell through packaging [with] no problem at all. I would rather eat it on the flight – it’s safer.”