Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe OMACHI, Japan, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A Japanese municipality hopes that a national fairy tale will come true and trained dogs are the solution for monkeys that go after crops. Mainichi Shimbun reports that Omachi Municipal Government budgeted 630,000 yen or just over $6,000 in fiscal 2005 to train four dogs at the Nagano Prefectural Police Dog Training Center. They will learn to go after monkeys on sight, to do no harm to humans and to return to their handlers once the monkeys are driven away. Advertisement Omachi has already tried electric fences and other means to scare off the macaque monkeys with very little success. While Japanese legends pit monkeys and dogs against each other as rivals, no one has yet thought of using dogs to herd monkeys. Omachi Mayor Yoshimasa Koshihara is waiting. "Legend has it that dogs and monkeys are enemies," he said. "Let's hope it works."
