Bomb Sniffing Shepherds Exclude Beagles From Their Sexy 2024 Calendar

Dec 3

Dec 3 Bomb Sniffing Shepherds Exclude Beagles From Their Sexy 2024 Calendar

For more than two decades, the Transportation Security Administration has been clogging airports (or keeping us safe, depending on one’s point of view), aided in part by about 1000 bomb-sniffing canines across the country. This week 15 of these photogenic working doggos are honored in the newly minted 2024 TSA Canine Calendar.

The calendar features one fetching dog for each month, with three bonus beauties pictured on the back page. There’s info on each dog (“Puk’s favorite thing to do after a day at the airport is to relax in her comfy bed near a sunny window and work on her tan”) along with TSA factoids, and some are damn interesting.

For example: “The canine program began under the FAA as a result of a bomb threat at JFK on March 15, 1972. Moments into a flight, the airline received an anonymous call warning about a bomb onboard. The aircraft returned to JFK where passengers were evacuated and a bomb-sniffing dog named Brandy was brought on board to search. Brandy found the explosive device 12 minutes before it was set to detonate.”

The canine crew was transferred to the newly formed TSA shortly after September 11, 2001. While these hard working dogs are sociable, the agency warns that “they are working dogs and should only be touched and fed by their handlers.”

So what’s wrong with these pictures ? The conspicuous absence of the greatest bomb-sniffers of them all, the beagle. The snub is particularly biting to those of us who cherish memories of Sugar, a droll member of the beagle brigade, who spend her retirement days stealing sausages and planning escapes from her Manhattan residence.

Even the US Customs and Border Protection website acknowledges their superiority: “Beagles and beagle mixes are the preferred breed of dog at the airport because of their keen sense of smell, non-threatening size, high food drive, and gentle disposition with the public.”

The new downloadable calendar is here. A short video on what it’s like to be an “explosives detection canine handler” is here.