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Dutch police recruit rats
ROTTERDAM - The latest species to join Dutch police is hard at work behind the blacked-out windows of a building in Rotterdam: rats learning to sniff out crime and a new forensic future.
Derrick, Thomson and Thompson, Magnum and Poirot - all named after fictional detectives - are being groomed to help police to not only keep the streets clean, but also save time and money.
Each rat cost just €10 and can, in theory, be taught to identify any odour, from drugs to gunpowder. A sniffer dog, on the other hand, costs tens of thousands of euros to buy and train.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE