Sichuan to deploy dogs for cultural relic protection

Authorities in southwest China's Sichuan province said Friday that they are planning on using dogs to safeguard local cultural relics.

Tang Wenjun, deputy chief of the cultural relic bureau of Anyue county, said his bureau will deploy 66 dogs to the county's 57 cultural relic protection divisions in order to protect 1,000-year-old stone carvings.

"Dogs are sometimes more useful than security equipment in terms of protecting cultural relics," Tang said.

Anyue county is home to about 100,000 ancient stone carvings.

Tang said the government of Anyue county spent 3 million yuan (476,000 U.S. dollars) last year to install a video monitoring system to protect eight culturally significant sites. The government also spent 100,000 yuan to install an infrared alarm system for 45 stone carvings.

However, Tang said the equipment can sometimes be difficult to operate or too sensitive, making the dogs a more reliable choice.