Government spending critics, like Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste, U.S. breeders, and finally congress are outraged at the overspending at the expense of the American taxpayer!
In fact, the IG; Inspector General for Homeland Security found that from April 2006 to June 2007 the Customs and Border Protection division had spent $1.46 million on 322 untrained dogs, yet found that the spending was comparable to what other Government agencies were spending on their dogs!
Most of the heads of the Government agencies justify the expense and spending on the dogs. The director of the Customs and Border Protection's Canine Enforcement Training Center in Front Royal, Va.; Lee Titus, said that "90% of the dogs come from overseas because Europe has a long history of breeding dogs with the proper temperament for security duties, while U.S. breeders breed mostly pets or pretty show dogs."
And Ed Donovan, the Secret Service spokesman said that they use European dogs because "bloodlines from Europe make the dogs very desirable for us."
Yes, while it's true that Europeans in general and, the Dutch in particular [being the the number one breeders, trainers and exporters of Police and Military service dogs in the world] tend to breed dogs that are more protective and higher drive than Americans in general, there are numerous American breeders who breed dogs, Malinois, from European and Dutch working bloodlines!
My dog Basco, Ph1 (Met Lof - with honors) is Dutch and received his Police Dog Certificate with honors from Holland! He produces working dog temperaments when bred to a variety of females, and has produced working Police Service dogs, and High scoring Protection sport competition dogs!
And my female, XENA, while born in the U.S. is from a long line of Dutch Police dogs and Dutch National Police dog Champions! So, while Basco and XENA puppies are born here in the U.S. they are still European and Dutch genetically, and representative of what the Dutch produce on average!
[Also, at 12 years old and going strong, both dogs have what I like to call longevity genes which they pass on to their progeny. In essence, dogs and puppies out of families or lines of dogs with long life spans cost less when the price of the dog is averaged over the years that the dogs live!]
Several years ago, after learning that dog dealers had purchased some of my dogs and resold them to the government at a substantial profit, I called the DOD's department of procurement and told the person in charge that I knew for a fact that they had bought dogs from dealers - middle men that they could have gotten directly from me at cheaper prices!
She told me that the Government doesn't buy dogs directly but that one has to apply to be a contractor and agree to supply x number of dogs per year for their training program. She also told me that they already had all of the contractors that they needed and wouldn't be accepting any new contractors for consideration for several years!
In the age of so called open and 'Free Markets', most of the markets in our Capitalist system are in fact closed! It's a huge problem that many people still don't realize. Our country does more manufacturing business with China, a communist society, than it does with American companies!
Also, one of the reasons that Holland is so successful at providing and producing Police dogs is because their system isn't Capitalist, with just a few people or businesses making most of the money, but Socialist, with a large group of participants; Civilian members of the Royal Dutch Police Dog Association, breeding, raising and training the dogs, and everyone involved sharing in the rewards and profits!
Michelle Denson, a Belgian Malinois breeder from Ocala, Fla., says that there are "plenty of American breeders who breed these kinds of dogs and they don't charge this exorbitant amount of money."
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., says that while "Using canines is smart security, paying $4,000 for an untrained European canine seems excessive, a waste of taxpayer money and does not support the breeders we have right here at home."
This, the government's manipulation of our capitalist system in the way that they award contracts, reward companies for off-shoring, allow companies to hire H-1B Visa workers (at lower pay) without requiring them to hire or consider Americans first, and by largely excluding American breeders from participating in and selling dogs to the Government, to name a few, is part of the reason that we are in a recession and fastly approaching a depression right now!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-05-22-securitydogs_n.htm
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