ACTIVITY—NATIONAL SECURITY
In 1972, a plane took off from JFK Airport in New York. Moments later, the airport received a
warning that a bomb was aboard. The plane returned to the airport and the passengers were
evacuated. Then Brand, a bomb-sniffing dog, was sent in. Brandy found the bomb just 12
minutes before it was set to explode. That same day, the President directed the Federal Aviation
Administration to start a program to train more teams of dogs and handlers to work at airports.
Today, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) runs a training program for canine
teams. After graduation, the teams patrol airports as employees of the city, county, state, or
airport law enforcement authority. They are not employees of TSA. To learn how the dogs are
trained, go to the TSA Web site http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/ and click the link to “Canine
Explosive Detection Teams.” Next, click the tab “TSA Dogs and Aviation Security.” Then
answer these questions.
1. Why are dogs used to detect bombs?
2. What are dogs trained to detect? What do they receive when they succeed?
3. What are dogs trained to do when they find an explosive device? Why is it important for the
dog to respond “passively”?
4. Do you think you would like to work as part of a canine bomb-detection team? Why or why
not?