Chongqing, China police confirmed it taught six Eurasian red squirrels to sniff out drugs this week as part of a national initiative to test out animals other than dogs in drug busting operations. .“These squirrels have a rather keen sense of smell,” Chongqing police dog handler Yin Jin told Chongqing Daily. .Yin said the squirrels were trained to indicate through scratching whether they had detected drugs on a surface. He added the squirrels have done an excellent job in drug detection services so far. .News of their existence spread quickly in China. One video posted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official publication the People’s Daily appeared to show the squirrels sniffing various surfaces and darting between obstacles during lab tests, which went viral on Chinese micro-blogging website Weibo. .Yin went on to say training the squad was the culmination of years of research. He said squirrels and other rodents are good at drug detection because they have the ability to pass through nooks and crannies in compact spaces and to sniff out drugs inside tightly packaged parcels. .The State Post Bureau said more than 139 billion parcels were collected and delivered in China in 2022. Authorities reported recent cases where drugs were sent via post and masqueraded as tea or other legal products to avoid detection and seizure. .This squad was a first because it took police years to be confident they were correctly training squirrels for these kinds of operations. .“Our techniques in training rodents was not mature enough before,” said Yin. .“It’s probably going to take some time.” .Some Weibo users joked about the squirrels receiving cushy jobs as civil servants — a highly regarded position in China, especially amid an economic downturn. .“These buddies are doing better than me,” said one Weibo user. .A hashtag about the squirrel squad was trending and had been viewed more than 51 million times on Weibo on Thursday. .China has strict anti-drug laws which are informed by its experience during the Opium Wars. The Qing Dynasty attempts from the mid- to late-1800s to prevent most British merchants from illegally importing opium into China sparked two conflicts where it was forced to cede territory to the British, leading to widespread drug use. .When the CCP came to power in 1949, it led to a successful campaign to crack down on the domestic opium market..Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
