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Originally Posted by Undertoad
What is left unsaid is how often the scratching rat sets off the mine. Sad. Clearly they have developed this system to let the distant (and protective-suited) humans to stand a few yards away while the rat does his business.
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Quite a few years ago I helped a sightless friend of mine prepare a term paper on the rights of humans to use animals in various circumstances. She had many, many examples, the most obvious one being her guide dog. She also had reports of Russians in World War II training dogs to associate the underside of German tanks with food. They would have explosives strapped to their backs, and when released on the battlefield they would run under the tanks and BOOM. Finally, she had documents from Vietnam describing the use of dogs to detect boobytraps. The score on that one was: Traps detected: thousands. Dogs injured/killed: None.
It is certainly not in the interests of the trainers to treat the rats as expendable. They represent a considerable expense in terms of time and effort. I bet the rats don't suffer a high mortality rate.
Have a look at
http://www.aeaf.org/papers/1997-11-ian-feinhandler.htm
Chris