Friday, 10 April 2015 14:30

Useful

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Many readers of this fine organ have written to us over the years to say what a useless waste of space the Hound is.

So your old mate was pleased to read that his canine cousins harrier hounds (a super-size beagle) may soon be working at New Zealand’s borders to guard against importing pests and diseases. MPI is currently trialling two harriers (Morley and Muse) to see whether the breed could upsize its detector dogs. “Harriers could be a great asset for our border protection work,” says MPI’s Brett Hickman. Harriers closely resemble beagles but they’re taller. And, says Hickman, “they have great drive and excellent noses for food and plant materials and they are good with people.” It’s good to see there are at least a couple of useful hounds around the traps.

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