Farmer Trains Sentry Pigs for Israel in Terrorism Fight

Uses School Bus to Teach Pigs to Screen Suspicious Passengers

An Israeli entrepreneur has contracted with a Missouri farmer to train pigs to guard against terrorists and suicide bombers by smelling and hearing their approach and sounding the alarm with distinctive grunts.

Kyle Eberling, who farms 500 acres of corn and sorghum outside Easterly, Missouri, and is well known on the Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri county fair circuit for his troupe of pigs that do tricks, said he has begun training 50 young pigs and expects to be ready to ship them to Israel by the end of the year.

Eberling declined to reveal how much he was being paid to train the pigs, saying only that "it sure beats raising them to eat." He said his contract is with Haifa Security Unlimited, a firm that provides security services to Israeli businesses and foreign companies operating in Israel.

"Lot's of folks 'round these parts are just laughing their heads off when they hear what I'm doing," Eberling said. "But pigs're the smartest animals I know, and they have fantastic noses and ears. Why do you think the Frenchies use pigs to search in the woods for those truffle things? Most people don't know that in the Battle of Britain the Brits used trained pigs along the English channel to hear the German bombers coming and give warnings."

Eberling, 78, declined to discuss how he is teaching his pigs to identify possible terrorists and suicide bombers, saying his contract with Haifa Security bars him from revealing his techniques.

However, Eberling did say that he has hired a local militia group, Show Me Farmers for Freedom Under Arms, to help. He said they work at night and simulate terrorists and suicide bombers infiltrating the perimeter of a secure area.

"The militia boys think they're pretty sneaky, but these young pigs spot 'em every time," he said. "It's not much different from that perfume trick we do at county fairs when we bring up a woman at random from the crowd and show her to the pigs."

He also confirmed reports that he has hired a local school bus operator to provide a bus during off hours so the pigs can be taught to screen passengers boarding a bus.

Asked how he could be certain that training pigs using sounds and smells on a Missouri farm will translate to Israel, Eberling would only say, "Terrorists smell, you know. Explosives smell. Timers make ticking sounds."

When training is completed, the pigs will be flown to Israel.

"We're going to rent several of those stalls they use in cargo jets to fly horses around the world. The pigs'll be in them, and so will I. I'll have a cot in the middle of my pigs."

Reached at his office in Tel Aviv, Moshe Levy, president of Haifa Security, confirmed that his company has a contract with Eberling. He refused to discuss the pig sentry project other than to say he had consulted with "several prominent government officials" and none expressed any concerns about using pigs to warn about terrorists.

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