No more Mr. Nice Dog
FROM FRIEND to foe.
The city Correction Department is moving a pit bull trained by inmates to the K-9 drug and cell phone detection unit, the Daily News has learned.
The dog, Rugby, was taught basic obedience lessons by detainees for several weeks earlier this year. He was then given an additional eight weeks of professional instruction at Universal K-9, in San Antonio.
There, he was taught how to sniff out contraband and follow basic commands.
The department has long used German shepherds and Labrador retrievers.
Rugby is the first pit bull, jail officials say. And the move to what some see as a more aggressive breed was questioned by one retired top jail staffer.
“That’s outrageous,” said Robert Cripps, a former supervising warden who also oversaw the K-9 unit. “No agency in the country would ever use a pit bull. There’s just no function for them within the department.”
But Rugby’s trainers said he’s a great dog who is more than capable of contributing to the K-9 search team.
“The public perception of that breed is wrong,” said Brad Croft, 45, operations director of UniversalK-9.
“The relatively few dog biting instances that occur, people make them out to be a super vicious breed,” he added. “It’s the exact opposite. The majority of those dogs are not vicious. And when they are, people teach them to be that way.”
Cripps, and other critics, say the department has been forced to bring on the pit bull due to a major shakeup in the unit that led to the transfer of nine skilled officers.
The officers were moved out after they allegedly threatened a colleague who is feuding with a dog handler in the unit, according to multiple sources.
The department is scrambling to replace the officers and move more dogs into the touted unit, jail insiders said.
On Monday, a department spokesman declined to detail how many officers and dogs are currently being used.