The Dutch police have a rat in the force, or five to be precise, and they’re currently being trained to sniff out drugs and explosives.
It’s seems like the kind of idea you’d think of when you’re high as a kite (and maybe they were), but the Dutch police force in Rotterdam are currently training five “sniffer rats” for active service.
The large brown rats, which are due to begin their service next year, have even been given some rather creative code-names. They’re called Poirot, Magnum, Derrick – after popular TV detectives – and Jansen and Janssen, the Dutch version of Thomson and Thompson, the bowler-hatted detectives in Tintin.
We were hoping they’d be called Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Sensei Splinter, but we suppose their idea is pretty cool too. Either way, the news means that the Netherlands will be the first country in the world to use sniffer rats in their police force.
We wonder if the Gardaí would ever follow suit?
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