Officer Says Police Dogs To Be ‘Put Down’ If Marijuana Is Legalized
A whole lot of drama was surrounding a police officer who said that police dogs would have to be “euthanized” if pot was made legal.
By on May 11, 2018
We’ll further explain that statement but long story short, the dogs won’t be “put down.” A police officer in Illinois says that the drug dogs can’t be “retrained” if marijuana is legalized. The drug-sniffing dogs have been trained to sniff out pot and other drugs, and they would largely become, not useless, but need to be re-assigned.
Even the police chief is apologizing, saying that it was a poor choice of words. The officer who made the statement said it to the local newspaper. He said that the dogs have been trained from birth to recognise marijuana. If pot was made legal, drug sniffing dogs would still sniff it out anyway. The officer said that it would be too expensive to re-train them to ignore pot, and that they “would likely have to be euthanized.” That’s obviously an extreme quote, and they certainly do that, so we’re not sure why the officer would even think to say that.
The police chief (James Getz Jr.) was fast to jump in and further explain that comment, and reassure everyone that the dogs aren’t going to be put down. He says “It was a bad choice of words, and it’s a statement (the officer) wishes he didn’t make… There are so many uses for these dogs. They are multipurpose dogs. … We anticipate those dogs are going to work with us for a long, long time.” And right they will. They’re still effective for chasing down suspects and helping to apprehend criminals. I think it would be a bigger waste of money if they were put down. Of course, no dogs are going to be put down, so no worries. Check out some more info on this story here.
