A dog trained to sniff out pirated discs, from a Malaysian unit which criminals have made threats against, has been found dead in the undisclosed location where it was kept, according to a report.
The New Straits Times said that Manny, a one-year-old golden Labrador which arrived in Malaysia in February, died about a week ago and that authorities were trying to determine the cause of death.
"We have sent Manny's body to University Putra Malaysia for a post-mortem," said Roslan Mahayuddin, the enforcement director of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.
"He had not started work yet so I doubt that there was anyone who wanted to harm him," Roslan said, according to the newspaper.
Manny and another dog Paddy were the latest additions to the world's first anti-piracy canine unit.
The first dogs in the unit, another pair of Labradors named Lucky and Flo, made headlines last year after uncovering huge stashes of pirated CDs and DVDs, doing serious damage to the lucrative illegal industry.
During a five-month stint during which they sniffed out 1.6 million discs, leading counterfeiters placed bounties on their heads.
Paddy and Manny, donated by the US-based Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), began work in April after spending some time getting used to the climate.
The MPAA had reportedly spent $US23,280 to buy the dogs from Northern Ireland. The dogs are trained to freeze or sit down when they detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in manufacturing optical discs.
Paddy, a black labrador, had been found badly abused by an animal shelter before he was trained.
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