Malaysia to get 2 new DVD sniffer dogs

If it were a movie sequel, they would call it The DVD Dogs II.

Malaysia will get two new sniffer dogs to unearth pirated DVDs after the resounding success of their predecessors Lucky and Flo earlier this year, an official said Wednesday.

Paddy and Manny, who are being trained to sniff out chemicals used in DVDs, will arrive in Malaysia in February to be permanently based here, said Nor Hayati Yahaya, the Malaysian representative of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Their training is almost completed," Nor Hayati said. "Malaysia will be the first to have its own canine unit for sniffing optical discs."

The male Labradors from Ireland — one black, one white — are trained by the same person who trained Lucky and Flo for a pilot project spearheaded by MPAA.

During their six-month stint in Malaysia, Lucky and Flo helped find 1.6 million pirated DVDs and other optical discs and equipment, worth $6 million. The dogs were also deployed in the Philippines briefly before returning to the U.S.

Though the dogs cannot distinguish between pirated and legal discs, they can lead officers to hidden caches after detecting the scent of the chemicals on the discs.

Their exploits caused a media frenzy and helped publicize the problem of movie piracy.

Nor Hayati said that setting up a canine unit to fight piracy showed a "huge difference in terms of attitude, commitment" by Malaysia, a country that used to be a top pirated movie producer and exporter.

According to the MPAA, its member studios in the U.S. lost $6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005, of which the Asia-Pacific region accounted for $1.2 billion and the United States for $1.3 billion.