A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) beagle who was on duty this week at Dulles International Airport ended up needing medical care after being kicked by a traveler, who has since pleaded guilty and been ordered to leave the country
Freddie, a five-year-old beagle trained to sniff out banned agricultural items, was on routine patrol in the international baggage claim area at Dulles on Tuesday morning. When he detected something suspicious in a suitcase arriving from Cairo, he alerted his handler as trained. That’s when the situation took a disturbing turn.
According to a CBP news release, the bag’s owner, 70-year-old Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie of Egypt, responded by violently kicking Freddie with enough force to lift the 25-pound dog off the ground.
Customs officers took the perpetrator into custody and transported him to a nearby jail, where he was charged with intentionally and maliciously injuring a law enforcement animal.
Freddie was taken to a veterinarian and diagnosed with contusions to his right-side rib area. He was prescribed rest and pain medication, CBP spokesperson Stephen Sapp confirmed in an email to The Washington Post.
Marie pleaded guilty in federal court the very next day. As part of his sentence, the offender was ordered to pay $840 to cover Freddie’s veterinary care and was removed from the United States shortly after. He boarded a return flight to Egypt on Thursday.
It turned out that inside Marie’s luggage were 55 pounds of beef, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of vegetables, corn seeds and herbs—all undeclared and not permitted into the country. The items were confiscated.
“Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared and prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle,” Christine Waugh, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Washington, D.C., area, said in a statement. “We rely heavily on our K9 partners and Freddie was just doing his job. Any malicious attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”
Freddie is part of the “Beagle Brigade,” a group of canines stationed at entry points nationwide. Their role is to help keep out harmful pests, plant diseases, and invasive species by detecting prohibited food and agricultural products. Just last year, CBP’s agriculture teams seized nearly 3,600 banned items on an average day.
Freddie has had quite the journey. Once a stray found in Georgia, he now serves on the front lines of the nation’s defenses. His handler noted that Freddie has been trained to detect a wide variety of meats—including cane rat, pigeon, snake and camel—alongside more common items like beef and pork.
In a post on Instagram Friday, CBP confirmed he’s recovering well and even shared a photo of the pup enjoying a Starbucks “Pup Cup.”
“Freddie should be back in a week,” said Sapp.
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