Snowy finally snared
2007-02-13 09:16
Madrid - Don't talk to Snowy the terrier about the hassle of airport security.
The brown-and-white hound spent 11 days in a sensitive outdoor area of Madrid airport - one of Europe's busiest air hubs - scurrying about with a dog's eye view of landing planes and dodging security people until he was finally caught on Sunday.
Not by authorities, but, well, by dogcatchers.
Snowy is a Jack Russell terrier that escaped after arriving at Madrid's Barajas airport on January 31 aboard an Iberia cargo plane from Britain.
His British owners, travelling on a separate plane to vacation in Spain, had been looking for him ever since, said Jaime Perez Guerra, a spokesperson for Iberia airlines, which also had personnel in on the capture.
The owners had offered a reward.
Snowy had spent all this time in what Perez Guerra called an approximation area - land over which planes fly at a very low altitude as they approach the landing strip.
That made it hard for security people to go in and get him.
There was also the risk of spooking Snowy and causing him to dash onto a runway, Perez Guerra said.
Workers put out food for Snowy in locations where people had spotted him.
In the end, airport officials called in staff from El Refugio, an animal rights organisation, who nabbed him.
"I don't know if it is the technology they have or simply lots of practice," Perez Guerra said.
- AP