Hounds by the thousand on payroll
Washington is going to the dogs - for real this time.
As of 2022, the federal government employed 5159 German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, beagles, Jack Russell terriers and other forms of everyone’s favourite furry friend. Another 421 worked as canine contractors.
The job descriptions for these fourlegged feds range from the sublime - 31 help “park rangers traverse Denali National Park in winter” - to the subprime: Others “detect waterfowl faeces” infected with bird flu.
A report from the Government Accountability Office reveals about 3000 dogs work for the Department of Homeland Security and another 1800 are employed by the Defence Department.
The most common use for dogs seems to be detecting explosives and drugs tasks they perform in places as diverse as Amtrak, the Postal Service and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR, in particular, would seem to have an incentive to ask its dogs to detect anything that might blow up - anything other than its 360 million barrels of crude oil, that is.
Dogs also patrol and search hard-toreach areas, such as federal wildlife refuges. At some agencies, dogs even work to identify currency, firearms, pests and invasive species.
As you might imagine, given their demanding and sometimes dangerous jobs, these productive pups often undergo months of training - more training than is required in many human occupations. GAO finds “procuring and training a dog can cost approximately US$65,000 (NZ$107,000) to US$85,000.”
The US Army sold its last homing pigeon in 1957.