From Stilgherrian
Peter Radvan’s suggestion that a museum sniffer dog would be cheaper than a £10,000 “e-nose” (23 April, p 31) is romantic but doesn’t consider the dog’s total cost of ownership.
A dog must be fed, housed, exercised, immunised and given veterinary checks. Someone has to remove its waste. My back-of-the-envelope calculation gives a running cost of £3000 per annum. Over a 10-year working life that’s three times as expensive.
And the dog has to be trained. Here in New South Wales, training a police sniffer dog costs A$90,000 (£37,000) – and I doubt that smelling mouldy paintings is easier than sniffing out a joint.
Besides, no one who has had a dog chew a favourite shoe or a vital document would ever let one near valuable artwork.
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Enmore, New South Wales, Australia
