Illinois Police Just Claimed if Marijuana is Legalized, They’ll Have to Kill Their Police Dogs

 Chad Larner,  the training director of the K-9 Training Academy in  Macon County, Illinois said in a recent interview that police  departments throughout the state may have to euthanize drug dogs if  marijuana is legalized. Larner said that it would be abusive to retrain  the dogs and that it could even be impossible. 

He also said that the  dogs are trained to not be social because that is what the job requires.

 According to The Pantagraph “,  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.” 

Other police in the state seemed to have similar feelings on the subject. 

Assistant Police Chief Steve Petrilli of the Normal Police Department said that it would be “impossible” to retrain the dogs. “At this point, they’re trained on five different odors. Once  they’re programmed with that, you can’t just deprogram them. I think the  implications of that would be huge,“ Petrilli said. 

However, it is actually possible to retrain the K9s, as many police departments in Washington have shown. 

Legalization activist Dan Linn of NORML thinks that the police are just making empty threats to scare the public. 

“The idea that legalizing for adults to have an ounce on  them will equal … all these dogs being euthanized, that seems kind of  ridiculous and hyperbolic,” he said. 

Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffett complained that this would make  the dogs useless to the department, and would be a victory for drug  dealers. “The biggest thing for law enforcement is, you’re going to have  to replace all of your dogs. So to me, it’s a giant step forward for  drug dealers, and it’s a giant step backward for law enforcements and the residents of the community,” Buffet said. 

In 2016, Buffett’s personal foundation reportedly invested $2.2  million in training for K-9 units throughout 33 counties across  Illinois. 

It is strange that one of the excuses that they have for not wanting  to retrain the K9s is that it would be abusive, but to train them to be  vicious and keep them as attack dog slaves is extremely abusive in  itself. 

There are likely millions of dog owners, trainers, and rescuers  who would be willing to show these animals a loving home so they can  grow to be social again. The use of dogs in police business is inhumane both for the animals,  and the suspects who they are often unleashed on. 

Our society shuns  animal abusers and people who raise dogs specifically for fighting, and  rightfully so, but how are police dogs any different than an attack dog  that a street gang breeds to be as aggressive as possible, for the  purpose of winning money in dogfights and intimidating rivals? 

In many cases, these animals are often treated as nothing more than  disposable weapons by the police that are in charge of caring for them.  In fact, it is sadly common for police officers to get accused of animal  cruelty for abusing or neglecting their dogs. 

Just this week The Free Thought Project  reported that an officer was caught on video abusing his own search dog  when the animal failed to signal for drugs at a traffic stop. It is  also common for police to leave their dogs in hot cars for extended  periods of time until they die. 

One police officer in Georgia killed three  of his dogs, one by leaving it in a hot car, and two others by shooting  them. Officer Daniel Peabody of the Cherokee County Marshal’s Office,  buried the first two dogs in his yard and was eventually caught when he  killed the third. 

When police dogs retire from official duty, they are supposed to  return home and live with their handlers, but this is not always the  case. In the state of Illinois where this controversy has happened, some  officers reportedly dropped their dogs off at shelters after they were retired. 

If any other organization was caught treating animals like this on  such a regular basis and were admittedly raising them to be aggressive,  there would be massive public outrage and calls of animal abuse, but the  police are allowed to be abusers so situations like this are often  overlooked or ignored. 

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:

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My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project @tftproject and The Mind Unleashed. In addition to my first book, Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance, I have also co-authored three books with Derrick Broze @dbroze : The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality, Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion and Manifesto of the Free Humans

I just won a 3-year-long battle with cancer, and will be working to help others through my experience, if you wish to contribute to my medical bills, consider subscribing to my podcast on Patreon.