According to Fahmi Kassim, the Domestic Trade Ministry"s enforcement chief in Maylaysia"s southern Johor state, movie pirates are spraying chemicals on their bootleg DVDs to confuse Lucky and Flo, two U.S.-loaned female Labradors who have been trained to detect polycarbonate chemicals and this month helped Malaysian authorities sniff out nearly 1 million illegal discs. Ministry authorities last week said the dogs were moved to a safe house after a source informed them that DVD and CD pirates were offering a bounty to anyone who could kill the dogs, which are on loan for at least a month from the Motion Picture Association of America. Fahmi declined to say whether Lucky and Flo were still in Johor, citing security reasons. However, the dogs have not taken part in any raids in Johor since last week"s effort, he said.
Malaysia is among the world"s main producers and exporters of pirated discs, the U.S. government and the MPAA have said. According to the Malaysian government, 5 million discs were seized in more than 2,000 raids nationwide last year, and 780 people were arrested. Malaysian officials have said they will consider training their own canines to perform similar tasks.