Everything about the 17-member K9 team we brought to India has been driving Bush critics there mad. First, when handlers arrived at the New Delhi hotel Le Meridien, they were told the K9s weren't allowed on the property. That was settled, only to be followed by much speculation in the papers, and complaints from politicians, as to why these $18,000 dogs couldn't just live in a ditch while they're there.
Like a fish story, the number of K9s has increased, some newspapers reporting there are 60 or 65 of them. The dogs have even been reported as scaring poor little orphans.
The latest beef is that before President Bush arrived at the venue, a sniffer dog checked out the memorial to Gandhi; you know, the leader that was assassinated.
There are bound to be more complaints. The K9s are a hot topic in India at the present.
From one of your links (see "65" in the preceding):
"...The specially trained dogs were flown in as part of the multi-layer security for Bush and have been put up in deluxe rooms at the Le Meridien Hotel in central Delhi. According to Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Nilotpal Basu, who gave the information to the media, the hotel authorities initially refused to accommodate the four-legged “officials”, saying they did not have provisions for accommodating animals. “But the US officials apparently insisted that they were not dogs, but skilled security ‘officials’ and no one should call them dogs,” Basu told reporters at Parliament House. “These dogs cannot be called animals. They can be addressed either by their ranks such as sergeant, major, etc. And the hotel staff had to accept it,” he said."
There are more than a few personality quirks necessary inorder to affiliate with the "Communist-Marxist" ideology but resentments about security canines is tapping the range of the insane. I am probably not alone in this hunch but what I am guessing here is that there's a higher degree than usual of slurring involved by alleging that -- as in their view -- "mere" "beasts" are regarded with higher authority than are humans, by the (again, in their view) Ugly Americans with our (their view) "warleader" President.
These sniffer dogs officers are real heroes.
Posted by: -S- at March 2, 2006 10:01 PMI believe that's the same guy that said it was an insult to India's self-esteem that the K9s were in a hotel.
Posted by: Donnah at March 3, 2006 12:07 AMI hope they kill a few cows to feed the dogs.
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 3, 2006 07:53 AMsounds like a bad episode of 'Green Acres' to me...
Posted by: Owen Crosby at March 3, 2006 08:17 AM