Lucky and Flo, the two female black Labrador Retrievers who became the world’s first DVD-detection dogs, are under threat by Malaysian DVD counterfeiters, according to the Motion Picture Association, which trained and owns the dogs.
The two dogs have been deployed to Malaysia for over a month to sniff out fake DVDs in a joint operation by Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and the MPA. When the dogs identified a hidden cache of counterfeit DVDs, which authorities later valued at about $3 million, Malaysian movie pirates put a bounty on the dogs’ heads, MPA officials reported.
“As a result of the extent of loss to the pirate syndicate, we have information from the domestic trade ministry that the Johor syndicate is intent on killing Lucky and Flo,” says Neil Gane, an official with the MPA.
“The Malaysian authorities are taking this threat seriously and the security around the dogs’ current location has been beefed up,” he told Reuters.
The two dogs helped seize about a million pirated game and movie discs, which were hidden in concealed spaces and secret compartments in an office building in Johor. At least six people were arrested.