Dogs can sniff out cancer from a piece of cloth which had touched the breast of a woman with a tumour, researchers said Friday, announcing the results of an unusual, but promising, diagnostic trial.
With just six months of training, a pair of German Shepherds became 100-percent accurate in their new role as breast cancer spotters, the team said. The technique is simple, non-invasive and cheap, and may revolutionise cancer detection in countries where mammograms are hard to come by.
“In these countries, there are oncologists, there are surgeons, but in rural areas often there is limited access to diagnostics,” Isabelle Fromantin, who leads project Kdog, told journalists in Paris.
Animal rights activists would oppose using the dogs in this way, because, you know, “slavery.”
Indeed, some, such as Gary Francione, believe dogs should not exist in this world.