Biosecurity

Harrier hound joins biosecurity frontline

She looks like a giant beagle. She isn’t, but she is the first harrier hound to work for the Ministry for Primary Industries as a biosecurity detector dog.

Lou lou and her handler Rachel Thurdon started checking Auckland airport passengers this week for goods that could carry imported pests or diseases.

“It’s definitely a first for MPI, and it’s possibly the first time in the world a harrier has been used for biosecurity detection purposes,” says Brett Hickman, MPI Detection Technology Manager.

Gifted to MPI by the New Zealand Hunts’ Association, the two-year-old harrier has been described as a “super-sized beagle”, he says.

“She looks very much like a beagle, but is much taller.”

Lou lou is the first of what could be many harriers to work in a biosecurity role for MPI, he says.