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How the Beagle Brigade Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: see you guys starting in August. Welcome to Stuff you
0:59
Speaker 1: Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and
1:08
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh close Ark, There's Charles W.
1:12
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, Jerry, Jerome Roland's over there. So this is
1:17
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know. The Beagle Brigade edition. Yes, and
1:24
Speaker 1: another I guess we covered drug sniffers. Yeah, but not
1:33
Speaker 1: or did we do Seeing Eye dogs as well? We did, remember,
1:37
Speaker 1: because Seeing Eye Dogs is actually a brand name. It's
1:39
Speaker 1: one of those, uh like a band aid, yeah, Kleenex
1:42
Speaker 1: or something. That one was that was a great one. Yeah.
1:46
Speaker 1: So I mean, is this the last job that dogs have?
1:51
Speaker 1: You know? We we didn't cover dogs that service pack
1:54
Speaker 1: animals yet. So oh that's right. Yeah, like Herder's Yeah,
1:58
Speaker 1: they'd be good, or Lumbarde act dogs. Oh that's true,
2:02
Speaker 1: that's right, or dogs that are sous chefs. Right. So yeah,
2:07
Speaker 1: we've got a big, big, long sweet coming. I thought
2:10
Speaker 1: it was done. Sorry, no, no, but this one might
2:14
Speaker 1: be the most adorable of all of them. Yeah, and
2:16
Speaker 1: this one was. I was always confused. I always thought
2:19
Speaker 1: the beagles at the airport, because as you will learn,
2:23
Speaker 1: Atlanta is they're they're trained here outside of Atlanta. But
2:29
Speaker 1: I thought that that the beagles were. I just thought
2:32
Speaker 1: they were drug sniffers everything sniffers. Oh I see No,
2:38
Speaker 1: you could have a big old suitcase full of cocaine
2:41
Speaker 1: and walk right past that dog and be like, um,
2:44
Speaker 1: well that's good to know, you know, sure for the
2:46
Speaker 1: next time you're smuggling cocaine. Yeah, once you once you
2:50
Speaker 1: make a pest of beagle, you're home free. But don't
2:53
Speaker 1: have a head of lettus, no, because those beagles will
2:58
Speaker 1: pounce on your neck and chew your throat it out.
3:01
Speaker 1: Don't have a whole hog. Can you believe that story? Totally?
3:08
Speaker 1: So this one was I think it was in Atlanta,
3:12
Speaker 1: that Hartsfield Jackson Airport and there was a woman traveling
3:16
Speaker 1: from Peru to the United States with a roasted pig,
3:22
Speaker 1: an entire roasted pig in her bag. And I mean
3:25
Speaker 1: it was very sweet. You know, she was just trying
3:29
Speaker 1: to bring home a holiday meal for her family. It
3:32
Speaker 1: was Thanksgiving, I think, right, Yes, she smuggled in the
3:35
Speaker 1: roasted big yeah. And it wasn't a little little you know,
3:38
Speaker 1: it was big. Well, they have pigs tend to be.
3:41
Speaker 1: I mean, it didn't say a suckling pig, a pig.
3:44
Speaker 1: I assumed it was a big old pig. It was
3:46
Speaker 1: a picture of it. Oh yeah, that's right, but it was.
3:49
Speaker 1: It was a good sized pig. Yeah. The guy. Rob Brisley,
3:53
Speaker 1: public affairs officer, said the right steps had to be
3:56
Speaker 1: taken to confiscate and destroy the item and then the
3:59
Speaker 1: Senate stop. But I imagine he said with our mouths
4:03
Speaker 1: right with with extreme vengeance. So anyway, I mean that's
4:08
Speaker 1: just one example. Yeah, and we should we should probably
4:11
Speaker 1: say exactly what we're talking about for those people who
4:13
Speaker 1: haven't been to an international airport in the United States.
4:17
Speaker 1: But there is a group of working dogs that are
4:21
Speaker 1: exclusively beagles, hence the name the Beagle Brigade from what
4:24
Speaker 1: I understand, although I did see reference that they do
4:27
Speaker 1: use labs sometimes, but I'm pretty sure it's almost exclusively beagles,
4:32
Speaker 1: if not exclusively beagles. And these dogs have a job.
4:35
Speaker 1: They're actually federal agents with the U s d A,
4:40
Speaker 1: the Department of Agriculture, no or not the d e
4:45
Speaker 1: A either, but their federal their federal agents, and they
4:49
Speaker 1: are Their whole job is to sniff out agricultural products UM.
4:54
Speaker 1: And the whole point of all of this is that
4:57
Speaker 1: the US UM has a pretty densive agriculture infrastructure, right,
5:04
Speaker 1: and if something comes through, Say that's a a pest, right,
5:10
Speaker 1: like a bug that eats um, what do we grow here? Cotton?
5:15
Speaker 1: Cotton we evil? But from another country? Right, So a
5:19
Speaker 1: non native pest or non native plant or a diseased bat. Okay,
5:28
Speaker 1: it could wreak havoc not just on our agriculture system,
5:31
Speaker 1: but if if the wrong kind of thing comes through,
5:33
Speaker 1: Like there's there's procedures in place for for food to
5:36
Speaker 1: come into the United States, you're not supposed to carry
5:39
Speaker 1: it in your luggage because it has to be inspected.
5:42
Speaker 1: It has to come from a trusted source. We have
5:44
Speaker 1: to know that it doesn't have something like hoofing math
5:47
Speaker 1: disease or a bowl or something like that. Right, Yeah,
5:52
Speaker 1: I mean it says in't here are in our own
5:53
Speaker 1: article that it's a one trillion dollar industry, our own
5:57
Speaker 1: agricultural agricultural product industry, and that's import export, eating it,
6:03
Speaker 1: producing it. Um an invasive species can be a hundred
6:09
Speaker 1: says about a hundred thirty six billion dollars in agricultural
6:13
Speaker 1: lost revenue um IS that annually, I believe, so man, So,
6:18
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's a lot of economy at stake here.
6:21
Speaker 1: So they take it very seriously. Right. So there's this
6:24
Speaker 1: group um so the U s t A, the Department
6:26
Speaker 1: of Agriculture here in the US. Um IS has a
6:30
Speaker 1: subgroup called APHIS, which is the um animal plant Animal
6:36
Speaker 1: and Plant Health Inspection Service, and they're the ones who
6:40
Speaker 1: are casket with basically creating this virtual border, this virtual
6:44
Speaker 1: barrier um to stuff coming in the US to protect
6:49
Speaker 1: agriculture in the US, right, like the notorious Romanian cotton weevil, right, exactly,
6:56
Speaker 1: exactly the most insidious of all, and specifically at international airports,
7:03
Speaker 1: working in conjunction with the Customs Bureau CPD customers and
7:08
Speaker 1: no CBP right, Customs and Border Patrol. You've got these cute,
7:12
Speaker 1: adorable little beagles who are trained to sniff this stuff
7:16
Speaker 1: out from people who are trying to smuggle whole pigs
7:19
Speaker 1: into the into the country when they're not supposed to.
7:22
Speaker 1: Bless that lady. I felt bad for you know, yeah,
7:27
Speaker 1: I mean I get it, sure, but I mean there's
7:32
Speaker 1: no way she did not cry when when the agriculture
7:35
Speaker 1: inspector took her whole pig she's going to feed to
7:38
Speaker 1: her family with a waste of food. She works so
7:42
Speaker 1: hard on that chuck. It might have been like her
7:46
Speaker 1: favorite family pig that she was waiting, but it was babe.
7:51
Speaker 1: Babe gave his life. Uh So you want to talk
7:56
Speaker 1: a little bit about these the history here, because it
7:59
Speaker 1: did not UM agricultural agriculture dogs or agricultural detection did
8:06
Speaker 1: not start in the US. It actually started in Mexico. Yeah,
8:11
Speaker 1: I guess was probably the early seventies. I did. I
8:14
Speaker 1: could not find when it started, but yeah, we know
8:17
Speaker 1: it's definitely prior to the seventies because based on this,
8:20
Speaker 1: I guess it was a U s d A training
8:23
Speaker 1: manual that was referencing it. It picks up then in
8:26
Speaker 1: the late seventies that the U s d A started this. Yeah,
8:30
Speaker 1: and then up until three we use UM. We use
8:34
Speaker 1: big dogs, you know, like typically, and I think we
8:37
Speaker 1: covered this and a lot of the other like drug
8:39
Speaker 1: sniffers like German shepherds and UM labs are certainly good,
8:43
Speaker 1: but they are UH labs aren't so intimidating, but German
8:47
Speaker 1: shepherds can be. Even though I love them, I grew
8:49
Speaker 1: up with them. UM, A lot of people the side
8:52
Speaker 1: of a German shepherd coming at them in an airport
8:55
Speaker 1: is a little scary. Yeah, I mean, and some people
8:58
Speaker 1: have sinophobia, which is a fear of dogs specifically, and
9:02
Speaker 1: in which case even the smallest dogs going to scare you.
9:05
Speaker 1: But even people who don't have an actual phobia of
9:07
Speaker 1: dogs are going to be scared of certain breeds and
9:10
Speaker 1: that definitely includes German shepherds for sure. So it started
9:13
Speaker 1: in Mexico and then uh, finally in nine four, uh,
9:18
Speaker 1: the U s d A U s d A started
9:20
Speaker 1: at l A x UM started, which is probably a
9:23
Speaker 1: pretty good airport to pick for a for a pilot program,
9:26
Speaker 1: not a airplane pilot program, although I'm sure they had those.
9:32
Speaker 1: Did you hear about the King of the Netherlands. They
9:36
Speaker 1: found out that he has been secretly undercover moonlighting as
9:41
Speaker 1: a KLM airline pilot for fun for like the last
9:45
Speaker 1: like once a week, um, for like the last twentysomething years,
9:48
Speaker 1: and has been flying. Yeah he's yeah, that's what I'm saying.
9:51
Speaker 1: Like he's been undercover flying, uh, not as the King
9:56
Speaker 1: of the Netherlands, just trying to have a life of
9:58
Speaker 1: his own. I thought you met like Leo DiCaprio, didn't
10:01
Speaker 1: catch me if you can, he just pretended to be
10:03
Speaker 1: a pilot to get based and fake checks. You're a king,
10:07
Speaker 1: you can't be a pilot. Wow. So was he was
10:10
Speaker 1: did he come clean or was he outed? I guess
10:13
Speaker 1: he was outed. And he said from time to time
10:15
Speaker 1: somebody would recognize him, but he'd just have them um kidnapped,
10:20
Speaker 1: kidnaps and killed rendered. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, well, good
10:26
Speaker 1: for him. Yeah they should just let him fly, you know,
10:29
Speaker 1: I think, I think so they're gonna work it out, probably,
10:32
Speaker 1: I hope. So. If not, that guy's one outlet has
10:34
Speaker 1: been taken away from well, so his pilot program is
10:39
Speaker 1: maybe failing. But the pilot program in l A X
10:44
Speaker 1: worked great, and they m this was a big deal
10:48
Speaker 1: at the time too. It was a big change from
10:51
Speaker 1: any kind of detection programs that they had at the time.
10:54
Speaker 1: I don't know why it took that long, but because
10:57
Speaker 1: dogs are, you know, obviously well known snow first to
11:01
Speaker 1: the tune of I mean, compared to humans, how many
11:06
Speaker 1: millions of olfactory nerves the dogs have? I know it varies.
11:10
Speaker 1: So somewhere somewhere in the middle is the docks and
11:14
Speaker 1: I didn't see the beagles specifically, but supposedly beagles are
11:18
Speaker 1: about average as far as scenting goes, which is surprising
11:20
Speaker 1: to me. But the docks and has a hundred and
11:23
Speaker 1: twenty five million olfactory receptors amazing, and humans have five
11:28
Speaker 1: million on average. And I know the dogs even there
11:31
Speaker 1: the size of their nose can make a difference. So
11:34
Speaker 1: I was a little surprised they picked beagles. But one
11:36
Speaker 1: of the big reasons is a the Navy had used
11:38
Speaker 1: them previously, uh to great success. And be like you said,
11:44
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're little, they're cute, so they're not
11:47
Speaker 1: gonna scare anyone at the airport. Uh. And they can
11:50
Speaker 1: they're agile. There's because they're small, and they can jump
11:53
Speaker 1: around on a conveyor belt like nobody's business to find
11:57
Speaker 1: that Romanian cotton weevil. Right. Sometimes they'll find just enough
12:02
Speaker 1: fruit that they'll make a little head dress out of it,
12:04
Speaker 1: like Carmen Miranda. Nothing cure, that's a bagle in one
12:08
Speaker 1: of those Um. Well. The other cool thing about the
12:13
Speaker 1: dogs and their their sniffing abilities is uh, it's like
12:18
Speaker 1: you can't disguise something like if you if you have
12:22
Speaker 1: of course uh. I was about to say drugs again.
12:24
Speaker 1: But if you have, Let's say you want to sneak
12:26
Speaker 1: in that cotton weevil and you think I'm gonna hide
12:28
Speaker 1: in and a can of coffee. Actually that might be
12:32
Speaker 1: you might not be able to bring in coffee either,
12:33
Speaker 1: now that I think about it. I was just trying
12:35
Speaker 1: to think of something with a strong odor um a
12:38
Speaker 1: bottle of perfume. The dog will be able to pick
12:42
Speaker 1: that out of that perfume, right, we'll be able to
12:45
Speaker 1: almost geo locate it. Uh, because they don't, they don't
12:49
Speaker 1: get confused like we do. Yeah, so you know how
12:52
Speaker 1: like a dog can when you when you watch a
12:55
Speaker 1: dog on a scent, it's just kind of like sniffing
12:58
Speaker 1: back and forth in the air is as So what
13:01
Speaker 1: it's doing is it's it's basically the same thing with
13:03
Speaker 1: our vision, right, the information is getting from one nostril
13:07
Speaker 1: and the other nostril. It's brain is putting together to
13:10
Speaker 1: create basically like a three D map of where that
13:12
Speaker 1: smell is coming from. Just like the the information from
13:17
Speaker 1: one eye compared to the information coming into our other
13:20
Speaker 1: eye gives us an idea of like depth, right, or perspective,
13:25
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So it's basically the same thing,
13:27
Speaker 1: but with their old factory sense um and the put
13:32
Speaker 1: on top of that is the fact that they can
13:35
Speaker 1: distinguish sense. Like this article, this U S d A
13:38
Speaker 1: manual said, when you walk into a kitchen and you
13:42
Speaker 1: smell chili, you smell chili, right, Chili's cooking. Put it
13:47
Speaker 1: all together. It's chili. That's what you smell is the
13:49
Speaker 1: sum of all the parts. Yeah, you know, if you're good,
13:52
Speaker 1: you might be able to pick out a thing or
13:53
Speaker 1: two maybe like you know, like do I detect Yeah,
13:58
Speaker 1: some cumans, But um, a dog will walk in there
14:02
Speaker 1: and smell every single one of the ingredients separately, right,
14:06
Speaker 1: which is why you can't just take something and try
14:08
Speaker 1: to overpower the smell of it with something else. The
14:10
Speaker 1: dog will smell the thing that you're using to try
14:12
Speaker 1: to overpower with, but it will also smell the other scent.
14:16
Speaker 1: Apparently they can smell this thing says they can smell
14:20
Speaker 1: table salt in a dilution of one part to ten
14:24
Speaker 1: million parts. That's amazing, Isn't that crazy? That is crazy.
14:28
Speaker 1: That's also why if you've ever taken your dog to
14:30
Speaker 1: a new um, like a new really new environment that
14:35
Speaker 1: they've never been to, like the beach. For instance, when
14:38
Speaker 1: I took I think a couple of years ago, we
14:40
Speaker 1: did a beach vacation and took our dogs and uh,
14:44
Speaker 1: they were going crazy, Like they walk them down to
14:46
Speaker 1: the beach and it was just nose in the air.
14:49
Speaker 1: Because you know, there's always a good breeze or usually
14:51
Speaker 1: a good breeze on the beach. And I can imagine
14:54
Speaker 1: they were just they were smelling these just hundreds and
14:57
Speaker 1: hundreds of things that they've never smelled before. Yeah. Uh,
15:00
Speaker 1: And it's pretty neat to see, and you kind of
15:02
Speaker 1: wonder what's going on. And that lunkhead of theirs, you know,
15:07
Speaker 1: ca'se one luckhead and one smart one. I've seen before.
15:10
Speaker 1: Um that when a dog is sniffing out a tree,
15:14
Speaker 1: what you're watching them do is sniff you know, the
15:16
Speaker 1: tree itself, but also every single insect in that tree,
15:19
Speaker 1: every bird in that tree, everything that's in that tree.
15:22
Speaker 1: Right then that dog is smelling that. Yeah. And and
15:25
Speaker 1: and I think it definitely varies because obviously some dogs
15:29
Speaker 1: are better, like hunting dogs and such. And the my
15:32
Speaker 1: new dog, Nico, we think maybe part plothound. What's there
15:38
Speaker 1: just like a you know, a hound. Okay, I mean
15:41
Speaker 1: you can look up platound and it looks like my dog. Okay, alright,
15:45
Speaker 1: but like a mix of a plathound. But I think
15:47
Speaker 1: that they're like really good um sent dogs too, because she,
15:50
Speaker 1: more so than other dogs I've had, is really driven
15:53
Speaker 1: by her nose and when you let her out, she's
15:56
Speaker 1: got her nose to the ground like for quite a while.
15:59
Speaker 1: I was reading today about scent tracking, and apparently it's
16:02
Speaker 1: something like some people like to do agility stuff with
16:05
Speaker 1: their dog, or other people do like obedience like competitions
16:09
Speaker 1: and stuff, and then other people and apparently this also
16:12
Speaker 1: is a really good thing to do. If you found
16:14
Speaker 1: your your dog is like no good at obedience, they
16:17
Speaker 1: might actually love scent tracking because unlike the obedience stuff
16:22
Speaker 1: or the agility stuff, when you're when you're scent tracking,
16:26
Speaker 1: the dog is totally in charge, like you're basically following
16:29
Speaker 1: the dog, but you're doing it together, especially during training
16:33
Speaker 1: as well. Well, you know, they say if your dog
16:36
Speaker 1: has behavioral problems, and a lot of times that means
16:39
Speaker 1: they have a job that they're not being they're not
16:41
Speaker 1: allowed to do. Oh yeah, that makes sense. You know,
16:44
Speaker 1: Like if you have a herding dog that doesn't have
16:47
Speaker 1: a herd, then that might be a big pain in
16:50
Speaker 1: your butt until you can find a way to kind
16:52
Speaker 1: of let them. I don't know, they can not necessarily
16:56
Speaker 1: part time as a hurter, but do something that acts
17:00
Speaker 1: as a hurder, you know, might as well make some
17:02
Speaker 1: money off of it. Uh, you wanna take a little break.
17:05
Speaker 1: M all right, We're gonna take a break and get
17:07
Speaker 1: back to the beagles right after this. M alright, chuck,
17:25
Speaker 1: So we're back. So we were talking basically about dogs
17:28
Speaker 1: in general, but since the U. S d A has
17:32
Speaker 1: been training beagles for its Beagle Brigade, right, which is
17:36
Speaker 1: this frontline covering America's agricultural infrastructure. That is correct. So
17:43
Speaker 1: um I was very heartened to learn from researching this
17:47
Speaker 1: that the beagle Brigades, specifically with the U. S d A,
17:52
Speaker 1: all of them come from shelters. They're all shelter animals. Yeah,
17:56
Speaker 1: and you know what, it kind of makes sense. At first,
17:58
Speaker 1: I just thought it was out of the kind of
18:00
Speaker 1: of their heart that they wouldn't like support the dog
18:03
Speaker 1: buying industry, but they they a lot of times just
18:07
Speaker 1: get problem dogs, these beagles that are so like you know,
18:11
Speaker 1: up in the business in your pantry or your refrigerator,
18:14
Speaker 1: or sniffing out your shoes so they can chew them up.
18:17
Speaker 1: People will you know, uh, well, I have opinions on this,
18:21
Speaker 1: but people will turn that dog back in or whatever
18:24
Speaker 1: to be adopted, hopefully from a no kill shelter. Very
18:29
Speaker 1: so then that's a that's a big point that this
18:32
Speaker 1: um USD a spokesperson makes in the House to Works
18:35
Speaker 1: article is like a lot of people are saying, I'm
18:38
Speaker 1: not quite sure how I feel about this. You guys
18:40
Speaker 1: are using these dogs as tools basically, UM, and I
18:46
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think dogs should be used that way.
18:49
Speaker 1: And the the u s d's responses what a lot
18:52
Speaker 1: of these dogs would would basically be put down if
18:54
Speaker 1: it weren't for us. You know, they would be euthanized
18:57
Speaker 1: because they can't they're too hyper to to live with
19:02
Speaker 1: a family. But there's exactly the kind of temperament we
19:05
Speaker 1: need for what we're having them do. So actually it's
19:09
Speaker 1: win win for everybody. Well yeah, and and as much
19:11
Speaker 1: as I love my dogs laying around in bed with me,
19:15
Speaker 1: um a happy dog, it's a dog that's working and exercising, um.
19:20
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the night they get
19:21
Speaker 1: to relax. But you know, it's easy to and we
19:25
Speaker 1: we cover some of this and uh and seeing eye
19:27
Speaker 1: dogs and stuff, it's easy to be like, oh man,
19:29
Speaker 1: that dog doesn't get to have fun all day, and
19:32
Speaker 1: that's just not true at all. These dogs have a
19:33
Speaker 1: purpose and they Uh, they're good at what they do.
19:36
Speaker 1: Is so I don't don't think of it as like
19:38
Speaker 1: using this dog as a tool UM in a bad way,
19:41
Speaker 1: you know, right. And then on the other end of it,
19:45
Speaker 1: if the dog is brought into the program and they
19:49
Speaker 1: find out that the dog doesn't have what it takes, UM,
19:53
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't work very well amidst chaos that like
19:56
Speaker 1: an airport always has, or um, perhaps the the the
20:02
Speaker 1: dog just seems unhappy. They say, if the dog seems unhappy,
20:06
Speaker 1: they'll retire it early. Uh. At any rate, they have
20:10
Speaker 1: apparently a record of adopting out their beagles and there's
20:16
Speaker 1: a waitlist right now, UM to adopt these beagles that
20:20
Speaker 1: have have worked for you know, several years or or
20:23
Speaker 1: didn't work, didn't make it, but you know, entered into
20:26
Speaker 1: the program. They don't return them to shelters, they don't
20:28
Speaker 1: euthanize them. They adopt them out. And apparently the USDA
20:32
Speaker 1: has a hundred percent adoption record on that, which is
20:34
Speaker 1: pretty outstanding. Yeah. And as with a lot of service dogs, UM,
20:39
Speaker 1: their first uh, their handlers given first right of refusal
20:42
Speaker 1: for adoption, UM, which they do, so you know, but yeah,
20:47
Speaker 1: I would guess so too, because apparently when the dog
20:51
Speaker 1: and the handler are paired up together as a team, um,
20:56
Speaker 1: they they stay a team for the dog's whole career.
21:00
Speaker 1: It's like like Riggs and Myrtal, right, or Turner and Hooch.
21:05
Speaker 1: Actually it's not like Ricks and Murtalk because they were
21:06
Speaker 1: prepared at the very end of Danny Glover's career. So
21:10
Speaker 1: that was a bad announce. Oh that's right, that's true
21:13
Speaker 1: because he's too old for that crap. Yes, that was
21:16
Speaker 1: a big line. Yeah, that was a great line, and
21:18
Speaker 1: that a TV show. Now, I don't think it is anymore.
21:23
Speaker 1: Jerry's nodding, but that probably means you're both right short lived.
21:28
Speaker 1: I think so. I haven't seen any ads for it lately.
21:31
Speaker 1: What a dumb idea, like, hey, let's dust this thing off.
21:36
Speaker 1: They do that with everything like twin Peaks even it's like, how,
21:39
Speaker 1: how come on, how are you going to pick that
21:41
Speaker 1: back up? Let's just I don't mind that, because that's
21:44
Speaker 1: just more greatness from David Lynch. Is it any good
21:48
Speaker 1: I've heard? Not necessarily. I think it's great. I mean
21:51
Speaker 1: it's uh, I mean, I'm a fan of anything David
21:54
Speaker 1: Lynch does. It doesn't I didn't expect it to be
21:58
Speaker 1: exactly what Twin Peaks was. It just feels like a
22:00
Speaker 1: new TV show from David Lynch to me. Really okay,
22:04
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I could be down with that. UM.
22:07
Speaker 1: All right, so let's get into this. You mentioned handlers.
22:11
Speaker 1: We've been dancing around this the whole time. You mentioned handlers,
22:14
Speaker 1: And uh, this, like we said earlier, this takes place
22:18
Speaker 1: at a place called the National Detector Dog Training Center
22:23
Speaker 1: the ind d TC, right here in Lovely Noon in Georgia, which,
22:29
Speaker 1: uh is that west? I think it's south Atlanta, west southwest,
22:34
Speaker 1: like just down eighty five after it splits off. My
22:38
Speaker 1: knowledge of my own home state is pretty poor. If
22:40
Speaker 1: I haven't camped there and it's outside of Atlanta, I
22:43
Speaker 1: probably don't know exactly where it is. I'm pretty sure
22:45
Speaker 1: I'm right, okay, southwest. Then let's go with that, um.
22:50
Speaker 1: And they start training. Like with most service dogs, they
22:53
Speaker 1: do that initial testing to just sort of see are
22:57
Speaker 1: they healthy, do they have the right temperament, how's their
22:59
Speaker 1: behavior here? And that initial screening is where the first
23:02
Speaker 1: lot gets weeded out. And one of the biggest parts
23:06
Speaker 1: of that initial weeding out is they have to have
23:09
Speaker 1: a high food drive. And that's not that doesn't mean
23:13
Speaker 1: how hungry are they? That means your dog has just
23:16
Speaker 1: been fed. Those little beagles just eaten, they still have
23:19
Speaker 1: a high desire to get to where the food is
23:22
Speaker 1: like bacon, bacon. Basically that's what you're looking for. And
23:26
Speaker 1: you make a lot of noise and you have crowds
23:28
Speaker 1: around and you just you're testing their focus. And this
23:32
Speaker 1: is all just the like I said, the initial screening
23:35
Speaker 1: to say, all right, little Henry the beagle here has
23:38
Speaker 1: what it takes, right, we think, yeah, well, yeah, that's
23:42
Speaker 1: just the start. Can he also learn to differentiate? That's
23:47
Speaker 1: the big one. That's the next big step, right, So
23:49
Speaker 1: I think there's like a one or two week like
23:51
Speaker 1: evaluation UM process. They also like give the dog a
23:55
Speaker 1: full like veterinarian inspection UM. I believe they spay and
24:01
Speaker 1: or neuter. I guess not and or specifically not and
24:05
Speaker 1: or in that case, or they they spay or newter
24:08
Speaker 1: to the dog. UM. A lot of times the dogs
24:11
Speaker 1: come in not very good shape because they're shelter dogs.
24:15
Speaker 1: They probably weren't taken very good care of UM early
24:19
Speaker 1: in their life, so they may need some sort of
24:22
Speaker 1: treatment or checkups or whatever. But then after that happens,
24:26
Speaker 1: the training actually starts and the dogs are trained to scent.
24:31
Speaker 1: I guess, starting out from what I saw five basic
24:34
Speaker 1: restricted sense that didn't expect these? Would you know it's
24:39
Speaker 1: it's rando? Oh is it? No? No, it's random. Oh
24:44
Speaker 1: I thought they were. I thought there were five cents. No,
24:48
Speaker 1: there are, And I'm saying that's a pretty random assemblage.
24:51
Speaker 1: I got you, man, you'd think after nine years together.
24:56
Speaker 1: But I mean, if you were to have picked five cents,
24:58
Speaker 1: I probably would have definitely picked beef, pork and citrus.
25:03
Speaker 1: Does makes sense? I guess I would have picked like monkey,
25:06
Speaker 1: bat and probably pig two. Yeah, but I mean those
25:13
Speaker 1: are in there so well, the monkey and the bad aren't.
25:15
Speaker 1: But um, beef, pork, citrus, the mango. Yeah, that's where
25:20
Speaker 1: are you threw me? What was the other one? Apple? Apple?
25:24
Speaker 1: With apple? I didn't even know they grew apples outside
25:27
Speaker 1: of the United States. I was trying to smuggle an
25:29
Speaker 1: apple into the US. I don't know. We got the
25:32
Speaker 1: best ones here, buddy, Just leave him at home. Yeah,
25:34
Speaker 1: I would love to know why those are the five
25:36
Speaker 1: basic sense Um, if someone has more information that because
25:40
Speaker 1: I could not find out. I could not either. There's
25:42
Speaker 1: a real dearth of um of information on the stuff.
25:46
Speaker 1: I even emailed the Customs and Border Protection today because
25:50
Speaker 1: I could not, for the life of me find the
25:54
Speaker 1: name of that first beagle that that started out at
25:57
Speaker 1: L A X. Cannot find anywhere that somebody forgot to
26:03
Speaker 1: write it down. So no one knows you're being tracked
26:07
Speaker 1: now probably Oh yeah, I've been looking up like, you know,
26:10
Speaker 1: restricted items, agriculture, invasive species, stuff like that. I'm sure
26:15
Speaker 1: I'm on a list, all right. So they teach them
26:18
Speaker 1: those uh, well, this is you know, towards the end,
26:21
Speaker 1: is when they know this five basic sents. At first,
26:23
Speaker 1: there just basically teaching them how to sniff through bags
26:27
Speaker 1: and suitcases and boxes and making sure they can. You know,
26:30
Speaker 1: they'll throw a they'll throw a goat head in a
26:33
Speaker 1: suitcase and send it through in noon in and you laugh.
26:39
Speaker 1: But one of them found a goat head not too
26:40
Speaker 1: long ago. So it happens, um and they just make
26:44
Speaker 1: sure they can do that, and they eventually and then
26:46
Speaker 1: of course they have to differentiate, like there's a lot
26:48
Speaker 1: of things that are scented, like those things that are
26:50
Speaker 1: just fine, like an orange perfume. Right. Well, that's another
26:55
Speaker 1: that's a gotta be kind of tough to learn for
26:57
Speaker 1: a dog too. Is the difference between you know, orange
27:01
Speaker 1: scented stuff for things that are made with like say,
27:03
Speaker 1: orange essence, like a a candy or a lip bomb
27:07
Speaker 1: or something like that, and an actual orange Because the
27:10
Speaker 1: lip bomb, no problem. Actual orange you've got a problem,
27:15
Speaker 1: that's right. And once they've done this, this is about
27:18
Speaker 1: a oh, a few months, probably ten to thirteen weeks
27:23
Speaker 1: UM and this is uh and they're being trained in
27:25
Speaker 1: regular like how to paw that stuff and and alert
27:30
Speaker 1: and uh sitting responses like all of this is one
27:35
Speaker 1: big learning period and the handler is getting trained as
27:37
Speaker 1: well obviously. But at the end of this is when
27:40
Speaker 1: they finally do graduate to those five basic sense um.
27:44
Speaker 1: And I guess see what I don't get it from
27:46
Speaker 1: the basic senses? Is it from those sense that they
27:49
Speaker 1: can smell anything? No, that's crazy. That's what I thought too. There,
27:53
Speaker 1: That's that's what it implies. Like if you put together
27:56
Speaker 1: apple and pig and the mango, you've got like bad.
28:01
Speaker 1: But that's not the case. Like each thing has its
28:04
Speaker 1: own scent. I don't know if those are like the
28:07
Speaker 1: most commonly smuggled ones. Possibly maybe so those are the
28:11
Speaker 1: ones they need to start out with. Maybe they're the
28:13
Speaker 1: easiest ones. I don't know, but I yeah, if you
28:16
Speaker 1: put those things together, especially if a dog smells in
28:19
Speaker 1: layers right and differentiates between sins, it's not gonna smell
28:22
Speaker 1: the combined sent of those things. That's gonna smell each thing.
28:25
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure why those are the five basic ones.
28:28
Speaker 1: Can't find out this one was a stone wall. I mean,
28:31
Speaker 1: like we're professional researchers here, and like we really ran
28:34
Speaker 1: into a wall. Who would have known that the beagle
28:37
Speaker 1: brigade is what would throw us, it would break us.
28:40
Speaker 1: Uh So they've learned all these sense they've learned how
28:44
Speaker 1: to alert, they're getting treats, are getting positive reinforcement along
28:47
Speaker 1: the way. Yeah, that's a big one to the entire
28:50
Speaker 1: training is strictly positive reinforcement. Yeah, they don't they don't
28:54
Speaker 1: beat these dogs down. They're not smelling correctly. They have
28:57
Speaker 1: like they spend ten grand a month on newspaper to
29:00
Speaker 1: roll up teach these dogs lessons puppy bounder. Uh So
29:06
Speaker 1: once they once they've gone through all of that, um,
29:10
Speaker 1: everyone knows I'm joking, right, yeah, And if you're new
29:13
Speaker 1: to the podcast and don't just don't even bother emailing.
29:16
Speaker 1: We're great animal lovers here. Um. So, once they've they've
29:20
Speaker 1: gone through this whole training process, they finally graduate, they
29:23
Speaker 1: get their little diploma, their little hat and their little robe,
29:27
Speaker 1: and they graduate from noon In and they get to
29:29
Speaker 1: move to the big city Atlanta or anywhere any international airport,
29:36
Speaker 1: but Atlanta certainly is a large one for sure. Um.
29:39
Speaker 1: And so once they get to their home base airport
29:43
Speaker 1: that they're going to be working at, they're still evaluated
29:46
Speaker 1: and trained for another sometimes ten to thirteen weeks. YEA.
29:51
Speaker 1: Training is kind of ongoing from what I saw too
29:53
Speaker 1: like career, you know, yeah, there's there's not like the okay,
29:56
Speaker 1: stop learning dog, Yeah you know too much. UM. But
30:01
Speaker 1: the I think the initial training period they're they're basic
30:05
Speaker 1: training still can go on for another ten to thirteen
30:08
Speaker 1: weeks after they get to the airport. And even once
30:11
Speaker 1: they get to the airport, that doesn't necessarily mean that
30:14
Speaker 1: they're going to, um stay in the program again. Once
30:18
Speaker 1: they're finally introduced to the chaos of an international airport,
30:23
Speaker 1: that dog might just be like this is not for me,
30:26
Speaker 1: send me back to noon In. Yeah, you know, you
30:29
Speaker 1: can try to duplicate that chaos and noon In, but yeah,
30:32
Speaker 1: good luck, you just can't. I mean even you just can't.
30:35
Speaker 1: There's nothing like a busy airport. You can't recreate that.
30:39
Speaker 1: So some dogs are fine with it, some dogs are not.
30:42
Speaker 1: But again, one of the main reasons why they're choosing
30:45
Speaker 1: beagles is because it is so chaotic and these dogs
30:49
Speaker 1: are their whole thing is they're not there like a
30:52
Speaker 1: male processing facility. They're not there like a border crossing.
30:56
Speaker 1: There there at a busy airport, and they're they're meant
30:59
Speaker 1: to be able to kind know, weave in and out
31:01
Speaker 1: of this the crowd while also being non threatening and
31:04
Speaker 1: also being lovable too. Like that's not that's not by
31:07
Speaker 1: accident that they chose these incredibly adorable dogs. The U
31:11
Speaker 1: s d A says that the Beagle Brigade is basically
31:14
Speaker 1: like a walking lovable advertiser for what they're trying to do,
31:17
Speaker 1: which is protect agriculture here in the US. Yeah, they
31:21
Speaker 1: have a little vest, says Beagle Brigade, And uh, everyone
31:25
Speaker 1: using OZ and some people if you're not, this is
31:28
Speaker 1: probably how they do it. If you're not actively ooing
31:30
Speaker 1: and eyeing, and you're standing there sweating heavily. Then the
31:34
Speaker 1: dog keys in on you. So I'd be in big trouble.
31:37
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you said it or not,
31:38
Speaker 1: if you did it and catch it. But the dogs
31:41
Speaker 1: are trained, um to walk up to to locate a
31:46
Speaker 1: contraband item and sit at the bag. Yeah, yeah, they.
31:51
Speaker 1: I thought they attacked the person first. It's called the
31:53
Speaker 1: passive indicating but rather than I saw in this article,
31:58
Speaker 1: it says they pawed at the every awhere else I
32:00
Speaker 1: saw that, they just sit and and kind of look
32:03
Speaker 1: at the person like shame on you, exactly. It's very
32:07
Speaker 1: passive aggressive way to out somebody for a goat head
32:10
Speaker 1: in their two kids. Right, oh yeah, man, you read
32:14
Speaker 1: my mom. All right, we're gonna do that and we're
32:17
Speaker 1: gonna finish up here with a big o brigade. M
32:35
Speaker 1: all right. So what happens at the end of a
32:37
Speaker 1: long day, Josh the dog? Um? Most beagles enjoy a
32:43
Speaker 1: good pipe, maybe a scotch in an easy chair, UM,
32:47
Speaker 1: perhaps a cigar tip. They sure they tend to watch CNN.
32:51
Speaker 1: I'll of if you watch Fox News, UM, and they
32:55
Speaker 1: fall asleep a little drunk. That's what they do every night.
32:59
Speaker 1: It's their routine, and that's what beagles like. Oh no,
33:02
Speaker 1: that's our routine at our clubhouse where we live. Uh. Weirdly,
33:10
Speaker 1: and this kind of surprised me. I guess it's not
33:11
Speaker 1: weird now they've seen the explanation. But I was surprised
33:14
Speaker 1: to learn that they're kindled. I thought that they I thought.
33:17
Speaker 1: I guess I thought they lived with their handler. Yeah,
33:19
Speaker 1: because canine police dogs live at their handlers. I thought
33:23
Speaker 1: it was weird too. But they're kindled. Uh. They have
33:25
Speaker 1: a facility near the airport. Um. Some people have asked, like,
33:31
Speaker 1: can can I just keep this dog at night and
33:34
Speaker 1: then take them to work every morning? Uh? And they
33:37
Speaker 1: say no, They said this is actually best for everyone.
33:39
Speaker 1: They need their rest. I imagine they have a good
33:41
Speaker 1: play together. I doubt if they just like drive them
33:44
Speaker 1: straight there and put them in the crate. You know,
33:46
Speaker 1: it's probably a little social scene going on. I hope, So,
33:49
Speaker 1: I hope they don't like get scolded from making eye
33:52
Speaker 1: contact with the other working dogs they live with. No,
33:55
Speaker 1: they put in their eight hours, they come home, they
33:57
Speaker 1: probably play a bit, and then they're kindled. Overnight. Uh.
34:00
Speaker 1: And they said that they you know, they need this
34:04
Speaker 1: rest time, uh, in order to do their job successfully.
34:08
Speaker 1: And like I said, a happy dog is the dog
34:10
Speaker 1: that feels good about its work. And you said, Chuck,
34:13
Speaker 1: some people ask if they can take them home, you
34:15
Speaker 1: should specify, like that's not the agents actually like people
34:18
Speaker 1: at the airport, I know, like, can I just take
34:21
Speaker 1: him home for the night and you guys can come
34:23
Speaker 1: be at on tomorrow or all. You can bring them back.
34:25
Speaker 1: I don't only live like five minutes away. Yeah, sure
34:29
Speaker 1: that we'll just get your give me your cell phone number.
34:31
Speaker 1: That sounds great. So it does make sense, um that, Yeah,
34:34
Speaker 1: they they are left to just kind of rest. And
34:36
Speaker 1: I'm sure that they actually live at the airport, which
34:39
Speaker 1: is funny. It's like that movie Terminal with Tom Hanks.
34:43
Speaker 1: It says a nearby facility. You think it's actually there?
34:45
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Yeah. Um, did you know that movie Terminal
34:49
Speaker 1: with Tom Hanks is based on a real life thing. Yeah,
34:53
Speaker 1: and the guy was like living there for a decade
34:56
Speaker 1: or something like that. In Charles de Gaal, Yeah, did
34:59
Speaker 1: you see that movie? No, I just read the article
35:01
Speaker 1: of movies based on Yeah, it's not very good. Unfortunately
35:05
Speaker 1: I got that impression. Yeah, it was a bummer. Oh
35:08
Speaker 1: really it doesn't end well. Well, no, it was just
35:10
Speaker 1: a bummer that it wasn't good because it was like
35:12
Speaker 1: Spielberg and Tom Hanks and I think my hopes were high.
35:17
Speaker 1: But yeah, I didn't care for it. No such luck, Charles. Uh. So,
35:21
Speaker 1: the beagle brigade is it's a very closely guarded secret
35:25
Speaker 1: just how many beagles are brigading. So, uh they can
35:31
Speaker 1: say though that there are a hundred and sixteen CBP
35:33
Speaker 1: agricultural canine teams with the dogs and the handlers, and
35:38
Speaker 1: that every international report in the country has a beagle
35:41
Speaker 1: brigade there doing their job. So they can tell you
35:45
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, I mean you want to tell some
35:48
Speaker 1: stories here. Yeah. So there was this one dog called Murray.
35:53
Speaker 1: Murray was um. He was at a shelter in North
35:58
Speaker 1: Georgia and apparently some dummies decided they wanted a hunting
36:04
Speaker 1: dog and didn't want to spend any money, but they
36:08
Speaker 1: wanted a dock tail and ears and everything, so they
36:11
Speaker 1: tried it themselves and it didn't go very well for
36:14
Speaker 1: poor Murray. So they dropped him off at a shelter
36:17
Speaker 1: probably knowing, knowing the state, they probably dropped him off
36:22
Speaker 1: on a dirt road and somebody else found him and
36:24
Speaker 1: took him to a shelter, and Murray was rescued by
36:28
Speaker 1: a group called alcove E Pet Rescue, And I guess
36:32
Speaker 1: alcove has a direct pipeline to the Beagle Brigade handlers
36:38
Speaker 1: at down in Noonan said, Hey, we think we got
36:41
Speaker 1: one for you. This guy is so food driven it's crazy.
36:46
Speaker 1: It's got a lot of love. He just needs a
36:47
Speaker 1: little bit of attention. He's missing part of his ear,
36:51
Speaker 1: but we can get past that. And uh at age
36:55
Speaker 1: two or three, he became uh a an agent for
36:59
Speaker 1: the USD at Atlanta Hartsfield Jacks International Airport. That's great.
37:05
Speaker 1: The only way that story could into better is if
37:07
Speaker 1: those original people had part of their ear cut off.
37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah by a dog. Yeah. What about Jasper? So Jasper
37:18
Speaker 1: he worked at JFK. I think yeah he was. This
37:21
Speaker 1: was late last year. Jasper retired after an eight year
37:24
Speaker 1: career and during this career, Jasper seized over seventeen thousand items. Um.
37:33
Speaker 1: The goats head was Jasper, like I mentioned, Yeah, whale meat, Yeah,
37:37
Speaker 1: whale meat, rhinoceros skin, cooked bat really. Uh what else? Um,
37:45
Speaker 1: anything else crazy like that? No, not that I saw.
37:49
Speaker 1: And a lot of Romanian cotton weevils. UM and the
37:53
Speaker 1: his handler Amanda Tipple or Triple is a Tipple or
37:56
Speaker 1: Triple Triple. She said that. Um. She was interviewed with
38:00
Speaker 1: Modern Farmer magazine, which I didn't realize existed until last week.
38:05
Speaker 1: UM have a subscription. Yeah, they did an interview with
38:08
Speaker 1: her and she was saying that, um, the that he
38:12
Speaker 1: could very easily work longer, but that the mandatory age
38:17
Speaker 1: of retirement is eight because they want the dogs to
38:20
Speaker 1: have some years of just chilling out, not having to work. Um,
38:25
Speaker 1: and that she's going to take him home. She's adopting him.
38:28
Speaker 1: She did adopt him. I think the article was from
38:30
Speaker 1: last year and he was on the verge of retirement
38:32
Speaker 1: when they interviewed him. But um, he went and apparently
38:36
Speaker 1: this is fairly normal, went from something like fifteen to
38:39
Speaker 1: thirty hits, thirty hits a day, but they had declined
38:45
Speaker 1: to about ten to fifteen. Yeah, everybody was very disappointed
38:49
Speaker 1: in him. Well, I mean that's a good retirement age
38:53
Speaker 1: of their eight, like barring some very sad health concern Uh,
38:59
Speaker 1: you know, a dog that size can live to be
39:01
Speaker 1: you know, thirteen, fourteen years old, so many years ahead
39:05
Speaker 1: of them, hopefully in retirement. Yeah, and once she she
39:08
Speaker 1: takes them home, you know, she gets another dog that
39:13
Speaker 1: she's go a partner with. So I wonder how that'll
39:15
Speaker 1: go over, you know, we'll we'll Jasper be like, I
39:19
Speaker 1: know where you've been today, and I just want to
39:21
Speaker 1: tell you again, I'm not happy with this. Well, I
39:24
Speaker 1: bet Jasper, uh, I bet Jasper, and all retired dogs
39:29
Speaker 1: have to deal with that transition, you know, like, imagine
39:33
Speaker 1: there's something the handlers have to do with them on
39:35
Speaker 1: a daily basis, like you know, probably a lot of
39:38
Speaker 1: long walks. Imagine the dog isn't just like all right
39:41
Speaker 1: and now I'm gonna rest like they're just to that activity.
39:47
Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, I was wondering that as well. I
39:49
Speaker 1: wondered too if they get them when they're young, so
39:53
Speaker 1: they're super hyper, and then maybe by the time they're
39:55
Speaker 1: eight they've mellowed a little bit, at least comparatively speaking. Yeah, yeah,
39:59
Speaker 1: I think a mellow beagle is still pretty hyper compared
40:02
Speaker 1: to a normal dog. You I've never been around beagles. Actually, Oh,
40:07
Speaker 1: they they they'll pull. Yeah. Yeah, and they they bay
40:10
Speaker 1: and everything. They're super cute, but they can be rambunctous
40:14
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah. I've never I've never known anyone with
40:16
Speaker 1: a beagle, so I don't even know if I've ever
40:18
Speaker 1: touched a beagle now that I I think about it, No,
40:22
Speaker 1: but if you've been touched by a beagle, you will
40:25
Speaker 1: never forget it. Chuck a couple of stats for you.
40:27
Speaker 1: Last year alone, in sixteen, the brigade inspected twenty three
40:31
Speaker 1: million passengers UH seven hundred and forty one thousand pieces
40:36
Speaker 1: of freight and they alerted total in the United States
40:40
Speaker 1: to more than one point seven seven million seizures of
40:44
Speaker 1: illegal materials. That's a lot. That's about what like seven
40:48
Speaker 1: eight percent of people bringing stuff in that have been caught. Yeah,
40:54
Speaker 1: and I saw also that there's a um there's an
40:57
Speaker 1: even more specialized group of dogs that are typically Jack
41:00
Speaker 1: Russell terriers that work on Guam to root out specifically
41:06
Speaker 1: brown tree snakes that's crazy, which are an invasive species
41:10
Speaker 1: that got introduced to Guam and have killed off like
41:12
Speaker 1: a lot of indigenous bird species. And they're basically trying
41:15
Speaker 1: to protect Hawaii as much as they can. I didn't
41:18
Speaker 1: know why I didn't have snakes until this article. Yeah,
41:21
Speaker 1: it's like Ireland over there. Yeah, I mean it made sense,
41:24
Speaker 1: of course, but I just figured, I mean, there's all
41:26
Speaker 1: kinds of invasive species, so I just thought that I
41:30
Speaker 1: just figured snakes would be one of them. Yeah. No,
41:32
Speaker 1: Hawaii takes there. They're like the Agriculture Defense very serious. Yeah,
41:38
Speaker 1: it's a felony. The snake thing is, yeah, well i'll
41:40
Speaker 1: just beat you up before they even take you to jail.
41:43
Speaker 1: They catch you. Well, I read an article because I
41:45
Speaker 1: was like, what is that real? And which is uh?
41:48
Speaker 1: I guess with great comfort to back country exploring and explorers, um,
41:54
Speaker 1: if you're scared of snakes, but uh, I read an
41:57
Speaker 1: article and there was there. There were a couple of
41:59
Speaker 1: them f the last year that you know, people have
42:02
Speaker 1: managed to sneak in. And one was a Boa constrictor
42:05
Speaker 1: that was dead in the road like five ft long,
42:08
Speaker 1: and the guy I saw it and said like, there's
42:10
Speaker 1: a snake, And everyone in the car was like, there
42:12
Speaker 1: are no snakes in Hawaii. They're like, no, that's a snake.
42:16
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I'm just a total idiot. I guess
42:20
Speaker 1: I'm sure their legs under there just a big lizard
42:22
Speaker 1: hate you guys. Um. Yeah, that was that was news
42:26
Speaker 1: to me. So interesting. Supposedly the ever Glades down in
42:30
Speaker 1: Florida have a huge problem with um Burmese pythons and
42:35
Speaker 1: like a couple of different kinds of pythons that and
42:38
Speaker 1: all of them were pets, and now they're just taking
42:40
Speaker 1: over and getting to be like twenty ft long or
42:43
Speaker 1: just crazy eating wild boares and things like that because
42:46
Speaker 1: idiots get them and then they grow and they say
42:49
Speaker 1: this snake is too big, and they just put it
42:52
Speaker 1: out in the swamp. I just wanted a puppy snake. Uh.
42:56
Speaker 1: So here's a good example to like, you know, it's
42:59
Speaker 1: easy to the goat head and the cooked pig gets
43:02
Speaker 1: a lot of attention. Uh. But usually this stuff is
43:07
Speaker 1: it's not nefarious, you know, it's like this this one lady. Uh.
43:11
Speaker 1: In February of this year, actually, there was a big
43:14
Speaker 1: gold name gadget that sees and this is just one
43:17
Speaker 1: seizure from one person. A potted tamarin plant, two live trees,
43:23
Speaker 1: forty two packages of seeds, twenty pieces of palm tree plannings,
43:27
Speaker 1: chickory seed, rice, millet, and fresh garlic, and a note
43:31
Speaker 1: from God. I mean, that's a lot of stuff. But
43:34
Speaker 1: this is what happens. Like someone goes to another country
43:37
Speaker 1: and they want to bring back like seeds to plant something.
43:40
Speaker 1: It's not like they're awful people, but it can. They
43:44
Speaker 1: can innocently wreak havoc on agriculture here by doing so,
43:48
Speaker 1: you know, right, So the process from what I gather
43:52
Speaker 1: is that you declare anything you have on you um
43:56
Speaker 1: and then if if they can let you bring it through,
44:00
Speaker 1: then they'll let you bring it through. But if not,
44:01
Speaker 1: they'll just take it and be like, sorry, we gotta
44:03
Speaker 1: take this. Then they'll shoot it in front of you. UM.
44:08
Speaker 1: If you don't declare it and they catch you with it.
44:11
Speaker 1: Thanks to the Beagle Brigade, UM, you can be fined
44:15
Speaker 1: up to something like a thousand dollars for your first offense,
44:19
Speaker 1: and if it's clear you're like a straight up smuggler,
44:22
Speaker 1: you will probably go to jail. Well, this person did
44:25
Speaker 1: declare that had all that stuff, chocolate and an apple,
44:29
Speaker 1: so as she thought, maybe if I declare something, I
44:32
Speaker 1: won't be as suspicious. I don't know, right, but I mean,
44:35
Speaker 1: if you're a CBP agent um and you're looking at
44:39
Speaker 1: that and you have the discretion of whether to arrest
44:41
Speaker 1: that person or not. You you may very well be like, no,
44:44
Speaker 1: you're you were definitely trying to smuggle this stuff, so
44:47
Speaker 1: you're I'm gonna I'm gonna make an example out of you, lady.
44:50
Speaker 1: And then gadgets just sitting there just like judging, what
44:53
Speaker 1: have I done? Yeah, And the lady as they're hauling
44:57
Speaker 1: her off to jails, she's like, I would have gotten
44:58
Speaker 1: away with it if annam for your meddling dogs. Uh,
45:03
Speaker 1: you got anything else? I do? I have one more thing.
45:06
Speaker 1: I ran across this article. I think it was on courts.
45:09
Speaker 1: It said like bush meat, illegal bush meat could be
45:12
Speaker 1: the cause of the next big global pandemic. There's apparently
45:17
Speaker 1: a major market for bush meat, which is any wild
45:21
Speaker 1: animal meat. Most people think of it as like monkey
45:24
Speaker 1: or bat or something like that, but it also is
45:26
Speaker 1: like elk or caribou, any illegal meat that's basically just
45:30
Speaker 1: being smuggled around. Um. There's huge markets for it in
45:34
Speaker 1: New York, in uh, London, in Mayland, Europe, um, And
45:40
Speaker 1: people just smuggle it in and a lot of them
45:42
Speaker 1: make it through And these things just get sold behind
45:45
Speaker 1: the counter at butcher shops in some cities and all
45:49
Speaker 1: what's gonna take is one of those things to have
45:52
Speaker 1: a bola and uh, maybe a mutant strain that that
45:57
Speaker 1: is transmitted a little more easily than a bowl of
46:01
Speaker 1: light or whatever we have now, and uh, you got
46:05
Speaker 1: a pandemic on your hands, and we can say thanks
46:08
Speaker 1: a lot. I hope you really enjoyed that monkey leg
46:11
Speaker 1: that killed off three quarters of the population of humanity.
46:14
Speaker 1: Cross those two words. I don't like it. I know,
46:21
Speaker 1: I know that's pretty rough. Uh so I guess you're
46:25
Speaker 1: done then too. I'm done, sir. Okay, Well, if you
46:27
Speaker 1: guys want to know more about bush meat or the
46:31
Speaker 1: Beagle Brigade or anything like that, type those words in
46:34
Speaker 1: the search bar how stuff works dot com. And since
46:37
Speaker 1: I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. I'm
46:41
Speaker 1: gonna call this one sad yet happy email. Hey guys,
46:48
Speaker 1: my name is Sam. I want to send you an
46:50
Speaker 1: email thanking you for your show. Uh. The podcast is
46:53
Speaker 1: actually a rediscovery for me. My dad used to play
46:55
Speaker 1: it back in two thousand nine when we would drive
46:59
Speaker 1: up to the mountain to go skiing. Very fond memories
47:02
Speaker 1: of laughing and nerding out with my dad and brothers
47:04
Speaker 1: after a great day on the slopes. I can't believe
47:06
Speaker 1: you guys are still going strong after eight plus years.
47:09
Speaker 1: There is a little more to my rediscovery of your show, though,
47:11
Speaker 1: that I wanted to share. It's been four and a
47:13
Speaker 1: half years since one of my brothers, who was an
47:15
Speaker 1: amazing skier, died tragically to suicide. Since I was in
47:19
Speaker 1: college at the time, it didn't have enough time to
47:22
Speaker 1: properly grieve. Recently, I've been mulling through many painful memories
47:25
Speaker 1: that I ignored in those first three years. However, your
47:28
Speaker 1: show unexpectedly brought back really happy ones. Uh. It is
47:32
Speaker 1: reminded me of the fun, adventure and learning our family
47:35
Speaker 1: enjoyed while listening to your show when we are skiing.
47:37
Speaker 1: I remember laughing hysterically with my family your jokes, rolling
47:40
Speaker 1: my eyes when my brothers and dad would try to
47:43
Speaker 1: comment on your show to sound smart because it was
47:45
Speaker 1: so creepy. One of your favorite episodes of ours was
47:48
Speaker 1: the one on cannibalism. Being a high schooler at the time,
47:51
Speaker 1: I also really liked the show on flirting because I
47:53
Speaker 1: thought I could put it into practice. Needless to say,
47:56
Speaker 1: it didn't really work. What this month, I went home
48:00
Speaker 1: for a week to visit my parents and I went
48:01
Speaker 1: skiing with my mom and dad, but the first time
48:03
Speaker 1: since my brother died. It was very painful, but also
48:06
Speaker 1: unimaginable special. When my family and I are on the mountain,
48:11
Speaker 1: I feel like I can encounter my brother as he
48:13
Speaker 1: was when he was healthy and full of life. I
48:15
Speaker 1: could picture him diving down a slope that was way
48:18
Speaker 1: too steep with the most enormous grin on his eager face.
48:21
Speaker 1: All in all, it was a great day. So I
48:23
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you for the hard work
48:25
Speaker 1: and providing interesting topics to fill my time, making me laugh,
48:29
Speaker 1: but also inadvertently helping me cherish a special time in
48:32
Speaker 1: my life. That's heavy. That is from Sam, and she
48:38
Speaker 1: sends hugs. Sam, that is fantastic. Thank you very much
48:42
Speaker 1: for letting us know we appreciate that. Uh and UH
48:45
Speaker 1: our best to your whole family. Absolutely. If you want
48:49
Speaker 1: to get in touch with this, like Sam did, you
48:51
Speaker 1: can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
48:54
Speaker 1: You can hang out with me at joshuam Clark on Twitter.
48:58
Speaker 1: You can hang out with Chuck on Facebook at Facebook
49:00
Speaker 1: dot com slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant. You can also
49:03
Speaker 1: see us at Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
49:06
Speaker 1: You can send us an email. The Stuff podcast at
49:08
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com has always joined us at
49:11
Speaker 1: our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot
49:13
Speaker 1: com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
49:20
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com.