 A Trained "Sniffer"
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Oct. 29, 2003 — Rabbis in Israel have been asked to approve plans to train pigs to guard West Bank settlements in a bid to thwart would-be Palestinian attackers from gaining "martyrdom," the Maariv daily said Tuesday.
Directors of the Gdud Haivri, an organization which supplies guard dogs to settlements in the West Bank, believe that pigs' more developed sense of smell will enable them to sniff out militants who hide before launching attacks.
"Pigs' sense of smell is far more developed than that of dogs," the firm's chief executive Gdud Haivri Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov told the paper.
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"The pigs will also be able to identify weapons from huge distances and walk in the direction of the terrorist, thereby pointing him out.
"Moreover, this animal is considered to be dangerous by Islam and, according to the Muslim faith, a terrorist who touches a pig is not eligible for the seventy virgins in heaven," he said.
Rabbi Daniel Shilo, chairman of the rabbinical committee of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) said that while the raising of pigs — which are banned under Jewish dietary laws — has traditionally been forbidden, the move should be approved in exceptional circumstances.
"Since this is a matter of saving lives, it will be permissible to have the animal," he said.
The residents of Adei Ad recently posted a gaggle of geese on the remote outskirts of their West Bank settlement in the belief that they would sound the alert if attackers approached.
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Name: Domestic Pig (Sus scrofa)
Primary Classification: Suidae (Pigs) Location: Original populations occurred in Eurasia and northern Africa. Habitat: Feral populations prefer moist forests and shrublands, especially oak forests. Diet: Weeds, shrubs, roots, tubers, bird eggs, snakes, mice and insects. Size: Up to 6 ft in length and 990 lbs in weight. Description: Varying skin colors. Thick skin with sparse hair. Short neck and large head. Round disk of cartilage at end of snout. Barrel-shaped body. Slender legs. Cloven feet with two large, flattened hooves and two short, lateral hooves. Thin, twisted tail. Cool Facts: They are widely considered to be more intelligent than dogs. It is believe that they have a rudimentary language of calls, snorts, sniffs and whistles. Conservation Status: Domesticated |
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