Dalton the heroic beagle will be enjoying his unemployed days very soon, now that he has reached his retirement age.

The nine-year old canine whose important duties include sensing for drugs and illegal products, once suffered an injury when his leg was caught in the luggage carousel.

The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine is holding a farewell ceremony for the top dog's remarkable contribution.

Marking nine-years of out

has organized a farewell event to honor Dalton, by exchanging his work uniform for the engraved plaque.

As Taiwan's most senior sniffer canine, Dalton is among the first group of detection dogs that have been brought to Taiwan from the United States.

Dalton has been on call since 2002, and has worked for eight years in Taoyuan International Airport.

Over the years, Dalton's accuracy rate has surpassed 80 percent and has tracked down 20,890 kilograms of illegal plant and animal products.

Dalton's working days were not always so smooth sailing. When direct cross-strait chartered flights opened two years ago,

Dalton was transferred to Songshan Airport. While on mission, Dalton accidentally had his leg caught in the luggage carousel.

The trainer took the initiative and stuck her hand in Dalton's mouth in preventing him to bite his tongue because of the immense pain.

Although it took two surgeries and two months to fully recover, Dalton was back in business, continuing on to perform exceptionally.

With Wang Chen-li, her trainer officially adopting Dalton, he can finally relax and live like a normal bone-digging pooch.

Now that one of the most successful four-legged investigators is out of the picture, the total number of sniffer dogs at the airports and harbors in Taiwan is down to 41, and it will be awhile until another furry one can catch up to his record.

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