Postal pooch on patrol

This pooch can pick out packages of potential pests like a dog on a bone.

Trained to key in on produce, plants, dirt, insects and animal-related products, Tassie, a certified detection dog with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, made her monthly rounds in Yuba-Sutter this week. The federally owned dog and her Sacramento County handler inspect packages at the UPS and FedEx sorting facilities to intercept those that may carry harmful diseases and invasive species.

The parcel inspection program protects an eight-county area with a $2.5 billion value in agricultural goods.

Steve Anderson, an agricultural weights and measures specialist for Yuba County, spends about two hours a day at the UPS and U.S. Postal Service facilities in Olivehurst, where he inspects packages employees set aside suspecting they might contain pests or diseases.

Once a month, Anderson's inspections get a boost from Tassie and Jennifer Berger, an agricultural and standards inspector with Sacramento County.

Tassie, an 8-year-old lab mix, is trained for both California and U.S. Customs border control and is one of 10 detection dogs in California. The detection duo check parcels from San Joaquin to Shasta counties.

"It's the ones you can't see" that are important, Anderson said. "Without the dog, those packages are pretty hard to find."

Under Anderson's and Berger's watchful eyes Tuesday, a tail-wagging Tassie clambered over boxes, sniffing eagerly and sneaking quick kisses on the men who sort the parcels. Keying in on a potential problem, she would paw furiously on the top to let her handler know what she found.

"She's a little hard on the boxes sometimes," Berger said, smiling at the claw-mark indentations Tassie left on a box of Harry & David apples.

If a package contains produce or plants, the detection dog gets a treat as a reward. But if she alerts to a box of something not on her list, such as meat or cinnamon rolls, she gets nothing, to discourage her from keying in on those in the future.

As one flat red box moved toward her on the conveyor belt, Tassie ran her paws quickly across the top. Inside, Anderson found cheese, sausages and pancake mix, along with oranges marked "Grown in the USA."

Without knowing where the fruit came from, the box had to be set aside and issued a notice of rejection and violation. The shipper gets a phone call that day requesting certification for the orange's origins.

Sometimes the boxes are easy to spot, with giant lettering labeling contents as flowers or produce. Occasionally, a box might give away its contents with a damp spot or dirt crumbling out the seams.

One such package came Anderson's way last year. Someone had shipped freshly dug-up grape vines — roots still firmly planted — from a deceased grandmother's property in New Jersey.

Inside, Anderson spotted some grubs he thought might be Japanese beetles, a destructive pest that attacks 300 species of ornamental and agricultural plants. Upon further investigation, the USDA determined the insects were a less destructive but still harmful species.

One of Tassie's best finds was at a Sacramento FedEx facility last August. She keyed in on a nondescript box containing car parts, guavas and a curry plant infested with Asian Citrus Psyllid, which transmits a devastating bacterial disease to citrus trees. Without the dog, the infestation could have been transmitted into the community.

"The stopping of those types of infestations saves millions of dollars in eradication," Berger said.

Among parcels Tassie keyed into Tuesday were several boxes of fresh flowers and produce. When from commercial growers, they are often OK, but home growers can present a problem, Anderson said.

"For a lot of people, it's their backyard and they are proud of it," he said. "But we have to protect our industry."

The Agricultural Commissioner's Office and the Yuba County Board of Supervisors are concerned that the possible closure of the Olivehurst mail facility may impact interceptions of harmful organisms or invasive pests and jeopardize the agricultural industry.

If the facility closed, those packages would be shipped through the West Sacramento facility, which cannot conduct daily inspections because of budget constraints.

"We just don't want to lose that control for those counties served by that hub, including Yuba," said Agricultural Commissioner Louie Mendoza. "Otherwise, it will just be run through the mail with no type of inspection."

Less than 1 percent of packages are set aside for inspection and an even smaller percentage are withheld pending confirmation or destruction. But capturing one shipment can be important, Anderson said.

"Once a pest like that gets established, it can put our growers out of business," he said.