<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Guard pigs' sensitive snouts secure West Bank settlements

Guard pigs' sensitive snouts secure West Bank settlements

Thursday, November 6, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

TEL AVIV — An Israeli contractor is supplying trained pigs to guard Jewish communities in the West Bank.

Gdud HaIvri has been negotiating for contracts in which pigs would be stationed on the perimeter of Jewish communities in the West Bank. The Israeli company, which already supplies guard dogs to the communities, has determined that pigs would be more effective in detecting attackers and explosives.

"The pigs sense of smell is far more developed than that of dogs," Yekutiel Ben Yakov, an executive at Gdud HaIvri, said.

Ben Yakov said pigs were also more capable in tracking would-be attackers on Jewish communities. He said Muslim assailants, prohibited from touching pigs, could be deterred.

"The pigs will also be able to identify weapons from huge distances, and walk in the direction of the terrorist, so pointing him out," Ben Yakov said. "And this animal is considered dangerous by Islam."

Jewish communities in the West Bank have sought to enhance security amid the heightened threat of Palestinian attack. The Israel Army has warned the communities of a Palestinian spike in violence amid a power struggle expected to erupt in early 2009, when the term of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ends.

So far, Gdud HaIvri has not reported any contracts for the supply of trained pigs. Executives cited the lack of support by the army as well as the rabbinical prohibition of maintaining pigs in Jewish communities.

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