Thai customs officials have dogs sniff for pork at Laos border to prevent smuggling

Thai customs and livestock officials now have trained dogs sniffing for pork that could be smuggled over the Laos border. This news comes after about 300 kilograms of pork were found at a dump near the moon river yesterday. Officials think a pork trader who hoarded too much pork might have dumped it there. They have deployed the dogs at a border checkpoint in Sirindhorn, a district of Ubon Ratchathani province.

Thailand faces a pork shortage after pigs on several farms have been infected with African Swine Fever. The disease has spread across at least 13 provinces, and farmers have had to slaughter and bury pigs to prevent it from spreading. In January, livestock authorities accused a company of pork hoarding after they found 200 tonnes of pork in a refrigerated warehouse in Songkhla. The company denied hoarding, and said the meat belonged to its subsidiary and they were storing it in the warehouse to meet consumers’ demands for the next week.

In January, pork prices rose so high that people looked for alternative meats, and the demand for crocodile meat doubled. After the lunar new year, pork prices dropped down, though. The director-general of the Department of International Trade said today that prices went from 250 baht to 300 baht per kilogram, to 170-180 baht per kilogram in Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok, they are 200 baht per kilogram, he said.

The sniffer dogs are checking all cargo trucks coming from Laos, even though officials noted that smuggling meat from Laos would be hard because of how few refrigerated trucks Laos has.

SOURCES: Thai PBS World | The Bangkok Post