SoylentNews

frojack [soylentnews.org] writes:

Police:

We can't legalize Marijuana because we's have to kill all our drug sniffing dogs.

Yup, they actually went there.

Reason [reason.com] the WaPost [washingtonpost.com]as well as many other sites are still rolling on the floor laughing at an 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 [pantagraph.com] 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.

Original Submission