By: Greg Halbleib
NORMAL – A Normal police administrator who has been a drug dog handler says there’s no danger of putting marijuana-sniffing dogs down if the substance ever becomes legal.
A recent Decatur Herald and Review story quoted a Macon County officer as saying the animals could not be retrained and might need to be euthanized if they were no longer needed.
Normal Assistant Police Chief Steve Petrilli was interviewed for the story. He told WJBC’s Sam Wood that Normal police have received many calls complaining about the possibility of putting the animals down in that scenario, even though Petrilli never claimed that and said many dogs have had good lives after their years of service:
My dog spent eight years with me on the street then he retired at home with me and my family. He was apart of the family, socialized with my kids. Which is pretty much a common theme of all the dogs that we’ve had.
“Our dogs are all dual purpose dogs as well. So I knew that when I had commented that there is still some usability for our dogs. Even if the law does change. Even our dogs that are trained to sniff for the order of cannabis. They still have a myriad of functions they can perform for the police departments.”
Petrilli says dogs in the department can do more than sniff out marijuana.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
