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Reason and the WaPost as well as many other sites are still rolling on the floor laughing at the assertion made by Chad Larner, the director of Maron County's K-9 Training Academy.
In a bid to protest legalization, the Illinois police have threatened to kill their dogs if marijuana is legalized. This could mean euthanizing hundreds of dogs trained to sniff out marijuana and other illegal substances.
Chad Larner claims:
Chad Larner, dismissed the idea of retraining dogs, saying it would amount to "extreme abuse" to change their mindset. K-9s are rewarded for successfully alerting to the presence of narcotics, and they continue to train regularly with their handlers for a suggested minimum of 16 hours a month.
[...] Because many K-9s are trained not to be social so their work won't be affected, Larner said a number of dogs would likely have to be euthanized.
While at the same time claiming the dogs are trained for many roles:
There are about 275 certified narcotic detection K-9s in Illinois, Larner said. Most of the dogs are dual-purpose, meaning they are trained to find drugs and to track and apprehend suspects and missing persons.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:58AM (2 children)
Dogs can't be retrained?
This is the biggest pile of horseshit I have seen recently (with the exception of anything from the Trump administration).
Also, let's be realistic: the dogs don't really detect drugs: they "alert" on cue from the handler in order to give the police an excuse for a more detailed inspection. Unfortunately, the US has a craven judiciary that has a long history of allowing law enforcement to get away with bullshit, pseudo-science, and straight up illegal behaviour.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:09AM
Exactly! The poor dogs would have to go through the traumatizing re-training of alerting from cues which will now be issued only when narcotics *other* than marijuana may be present. This will entirely disrupt the telepathic link they have with their handlers; better to kill them instead.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:25PM
It all depends on the trainer whether a dog can be retrained. If the trainer is a retarded troglodyte, he will be incapable of retraining a dog, let alone himself.