SNIFFER DOG HIT BY PASSENGER

Man clearing customs objects to animal

An airport drug sniffing dog was smashed in the head with a box of rum early
Sunday when a passenger objected to being targeted.

Canada Customs spokesperson Duncan Smith said Ozzy, one of six dogs used by
the federal agency to detect drug smugglers at Pearson International
Airport, was struck when he sat down beside a man waiting to clear customs
at Terminal 3.

Unlike active dogs, which claw and scratch for drugs when they get the
scent, Canada Customs' passive dogs are trained to sit beside a smuggler or
bag carrying narcotics.

"The handler was going up and down the lines when Ozzy detected something
and sat down beside two travellers," Smith said. "They started yelling and
using inappropriate language and telling the handler to get the dog away
from them or else."

Smith said the handler told them to calm down, but when the 3-year-old
border collie-Labrador cross remained still, indicating a drug scent, the
passenger hit the dog in the head with a liquor box.

"Ozzy yelped and went to the floor," Smith said.

Several Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and two off-duty Toronto
police officers who were on the flight from Jamaica went to the travellers,
Smith said.

Smith said no drugs were found on the passenger.

Ozzy wasn't seriously injured, Smith said.

Each of the six Canada Customs drug dogs searches about 15,000 passengers
annually.

They don't always find big-time drug smugglers, but the four-legged snoops
last year found $83 million of the estimated record $165.5 million worth of
drugs seized by Canada Customs at Pearson.

Ozzy was responsible for seven major seizures in 1999.

"The is the first time I can remember any of our dogs getting hit," Smith
said.

Charged with obstructing a police officer was Chadwick Colquhoun, 25, of
Hamilton.

Canada Customs agents have seized an estimated $1.4 million worth of drugs
at Pearson International Airport in the past 30 days.

Altogether, 33 seizures were made, including 7.2 kilograms of cocaine, 14.5
kilograms of marijuana and more than 689 kilograms of khat.

Narcotics were found hidden inside the soles of sandals, in false-bottom
suitcases and concealed in food.

A 35-year-old Toronto man who swallowed 750 grams of cocaine was caught when
he volunteered to take a urine test, Smith said.

Another traveller tried to smuggle 7.5 kilograms of marijuana inside cans of
Tastee-brand cheese on a flight from the Caribbean on May 28.

On June 3, 2 kilograms of marijuana were found inside bags of coffee beans
in the hand luggage of a 22-year-old Toronto woman returning on another
flight from the Caribbean.