Cop Claims Police Dogs Would Be Euthanized If Pot Is Legalized

DECATUR, IL — A police chief is walking back one of his detective's claims that drug-sniffing police dogs would have to be euthanized if marijuana is legalized in Illinois. Detective Chad Larner, who runs the K-9 Training Academy in Macon County, made the remarks to a local newspaper last month.

This week, Decatur Police Chief Jim Getz called Larner's statement a "bad choice of words" after several sources — including debunking website Snopes.com — dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

Getz told the Chicago Tribune Larner wishes he hadn't made the statement. “There are so many uses for these dogs," Getz said. "We anticipate those dogs are going to work with us for a long, long time."

Illinois already has an established medical marijuana program, and the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes has also gotten some support in the state. Cook County voters resoundingly said yes to legalizing it in the March primary, and another advisory question on the matter could show up on November ballots (though it wouldn't be legally binding).

Several states — Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts — already have legalized recreational marijuana.

Last month, Larner told the Decatur Herald and Review that if marijuana were legalized in Illinois, some police dogs may be put down because they are trained not to be social. He also called it "extreme abuse" to retrain drug-sniffing canines to accommodate legalized marijuana.

A Cook County spokeswoman told the Tribune that its 14 K-9 officers would still have a job even if marijuana is legalized. “I don’t believe legalizing marijuana would impact their tremendous utility to our office and the public we serve,” she said.

“There’s no reason for any dogs to be euthanized because marijuana is legalized,” said Brian Dowdy, who runs one of Illinois' academies for narcotics detection canines. “That’s extreme, and it’s almost like trying to coerce the people who are going to be voting on the law.”

Meanwhile, Snopes posted a fact check of Larner's claims, including the idea that police dogs are trained not to be social. Denver police told Snopes it's just the opposite, saying in a statement: "We actually want them to be people friendly, it puts people at ease around the dogs and this leads to more effective deployments."

A spokesman for the Denver Police Department also said the agency does not euthanize police dogs even after they are unable to work, saying retired dogs usually stay with their handlers as family pets.

"We would never do that," the department said.

Photo via Shutterstock