Sherlock the Beagle

He's adorable, he's efficient, and he's needed.

The only problem is, he's fake.

Supposedly, KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines in Amsterdam, had recently added an adorable Beagle named Sherlock to its dedicated Lost & Found team.

Sherlock’s job was to reunite lost items as quickly as possible with their legitimate owners.

But according to an article at yahoo.com:

"The dog is purely used to symbolise the active way in which the team will search for owners and unite them with their lost possessions," KLM spokesperson Joost Ruempol is quoted as saying in an English translation of the article.

Sherlock, it turns out, was an advertising agency creation.

So humans are the ones doing the search and return, and without any of the cuteness or amazing sense of smell of their canine mascot because Sherlock is "not a permanent member of the lost and found team".

Sherlock is suing the airlines for false advertising and blatant speciesism. :-D