A passenger who arrived at an Australian airport last week with an undeclared meal found themselves in a lot of trouble.
A specially-trained canine found the breach when the traveler from Indonesia carried the McDonald’s food on a flight into Darwin International Airport, NBC News reported Tuesday:
The airport’s new biosecurity detector dog Zinta discovered the two egg and beef sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant in the passenger’s backpack. The passenger was slapped with a 12-unit infringement, amounting to $2,664, or $1,874 in American dollars, for failure to declare potential high biosecurity risk items and issuing a false and misleading travel declaration form.
A photo showed the fast food meal, still wrapped in its packaging. The items appeared to be sitting alongside a stack of pancakes.
Six News Australia reported the meal came from a McDonalds in Bali:
It would be the most expensive meal the passenger ever ate, according to Murray Watt, Australia’s minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry.
He added, “But I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught.”
Watt noted that Zinta works at Darwin Airport to help biosecurity efforts. As of right now, Australia is free of foot and mouth disease (FMD), and trained canines helped secure — and now maintain — that status.
Images showed Zinta the dog wearing a special vest:
FMD is described as a serious and highly contagious disease on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) website.
It affects animals with divided hooves, but does not cause illness in horses, dogs, or cats.
“FMD is a worldwide concern as it can spread quickly and cause significant economic losses,” the agency said.
“While many countries across the globe are dealing with FMD in their livestock populations, the United States eradicated the disease here in 1929. APHIS works hard to prevent FMD from reentering the country,” it concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.