Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Rats and cats work to sniff out Colombia mines

Colombia is home to the world's largest number of land mine victims. Last year, there were 1,108 victims, or about one every eight hours, the government says. Nearly a quarter of the victims die from their injuries. For the past year, a special Colombian police unit has been locking rats in cages with cats as part of a project to train the rodents to sniff out the more than 100,000 land mines planted mostly by leftist rebels across this conflict-wracked Andean country. Bringing the rats face to face with an enemy allows them to stay more focused once they are released.

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