THAI STRAYS PUT BITE INTO ANTI-DRUGS CRUSADE

Bua Dang spends his days digging through piles of rubbish outside one of
Bangkok's slums, hunting for scraps of food.

One night, he is set upon by a group of uniformed men, bundled into a van
and taken to a military base on the outskirts of the city.

Weeks later, the scruffy, ginger-haired mongrel finds himself on the
frontline of Thailand's anti-drugs crusade, one of 50 stray dogs trained by
the Thai military in counter terrorism and fighting crime.

Among his jobs is to sniff out narcotics along the volatile border with
Myanmar.

The strays were each assigned an instructor and given names before being
sent for three months of intensive training.

Bua Dang was one of the prized pupils at his military training school and
was top dog of his class.

His handler said three years as a ravenous pup sniffing dustbins for scraps
meant he had no problems hunting out illicit methamphetamine pills or
explosives.

"Bua Dang was very quiet and lonely when he first arrived here. He's
beginning to become playful and he really enjoyed his training," Banchong
Phubaibang told Reuters.

The Royal Thai Army took the lead in training the homeless hounds after
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej suggested homeless dogs be given jobs.

HAIL CAESAR!

He has so far sent two of his own pets, Julius and Caesar, for training and
has offered two other dogs, Throng That and Throng At, to be trained in
retrieving lost items.

The army said it had deployed 42 of the successful dog graduates at the
Thai-Myanmar and Thai-Cambodia borders to detect explosives and drugs.

Twenty-nine of the dogs have joined Bua Dang to work alongside the Pha Muang
Task Force at the Thailand-Myanmar frontier where there have been a series
of clashes between Myanmar troops and ethnic rebels. The clashes sometimes
stray into Thai territory.

The International Narcotics Control Board said an estimated five percent of
Thailand's population were regularly abusing methamphetamines prior to a
recent crackdown by the government, and most of the drugs entering the
country are thought to be from Myanmar, formerly Burma.

The new sniffers could be instrumental in helping Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra fulfil his public pledge to rid "every inch of Thai soil"
of illicit drugs by the end of the year.

The kingdom has millions of homeless dogs. No one knows how many, but unlike
most countries, Thailand does not kill off its strays because Buddhists
revere all forms of life.

PRINCESS OF POOCHES

The country has a long-standing love affair with its dogs, shown last year
when Tongdaeng, a former stray from the streets of Bangkok, was elevated to
superstar status overnight.

Some 100,000 people queued up outside shops to buy a book about her, written
by her owner, the king. The book topped Thailand's bestseller lists and over
a million of the country's 62 million people are expected to buy a copy.

The king's book hails Tongdaeng as one of the most respectful, grateful and
well mannered dogs in the world, and an example to Thais -- particularly
politicians -- on how to behave.

The stray sniffer scheme is saving the country money, too. Thai police
previously delegated the task of drugs and explosives detection to foreign
breeds like German shepherds, labradors, retrievers, and Dobermans, but
foreign purebreds are expensive. Police say street dogs can be rounded up
and trained at a much lower price.

For some dogs, though, years of untamed living in Bangkok's notorious slums
meant military discipline proved difficult.

Somak Posoonnern, a sergeant in the Thai Army, said the street dogs were not
as good as foreign counterparts, although they could reach the same standard
if they were trained when puppies.