Columns: No Limits, No Kidding!

BORDER PATROL DOGS UNDER NEW THREAT

Border Patrol dogs and their handlers save American lives but the dogs that guard our Southern border face this new drug death threat every day!

Update March 7, 2023

Col. Sam Harper, Dogsport Reconnaissance

If our enemies dropped a bomb in Manhattan it would do less damage to Americans than the fentanyl pouring across our southern border. But it isn’t just humans, Border Patrol Dogs are at high risk.

“On average, hidden drug samples were indicated by dogs after 64s searching time, with 87.7% indications being correct and 5.3% being false. ~ Nat. Institute Of Health. That sounds good, right? Maybe… Take two thoughts with you when you vote this fall.

DVM veterinary says “Just a few inhaled grains of fentanyl can cause a dog to overdose.” and CNN recently reported that “police dogs are being killed from sniffing fentanyl.”

The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) states “Minuscule amounts of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and fentanyl analogues such as carfentanil, can cause overdoses in police dogs, drug detection dogs, etc.

Which is more important, catching drug smugglers or the life and value of a highly trained drug-sniffing American border protection dog?

We all know drugs kill but nobody talks about the dogs that die keeping us safe. Dr. Martha Smith-Blackmore, a veterinary professor at Tufts University says “Symptoms of opioid exposure in dogs, as with humans, include sedation, pinpoint pupils, vomiting, stumbling and a slow respiratory rate.” She points out that “Just like people, dogs can require multiple doses of naloxone to reverse an overdose.”

I checked and Purdue Veterinary College says “Narcan can be administered to canines as a nasal spray or by intramuscular injection.” I hope we provide Border Patrol agents with canine nasal naloxone.

My buddy in Maryland said they are training dogs on liquid fentanyl (instead of powder) to minimize the sniff-risk to the dogs. He said his state police carry Narcan for their dogs and are trained to look for “excessive drooling and severe limping” as symptoms of overdose.

What a sad irony that the Border situation is so bad that drug-sniffing dogs have to be protected! You don’t hear this on TV news, actually, most stations play it down. Have they been told to do that?

Is public information more controlled than the border? Texans say “Hell yes!”

U.S. Border Patrol dogs and their handlers risk death every day. A California Highway Patrol Officer came in contact with another deadly drug called carfentanil and it is said to be “100 times more potent than fentanyl.” He is being treated but his condition was grave when I looked it up. The CDC says “Carfentanil, the most potent fentanyl analog detected in the U.S., is estimated to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine.” You don’t hear that on the 6:00 news!

Last night one of my poker buddies said a local High School girl died from what they called “a new version of fentanyl.” I told him that is what veterinarians use to euthanize animals. He wondered if she got it there, remembering that his brother’s vet was broken into a week ago. He didn’t remember any follow-up on the newspaper story and opined that was wise, that addicts or pushers don’t need to know where to get free fentanyl…

I have friends in law enforcement, both civil and military. They said that dog owners should know that marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin are deadly to dogs in much smaller amounts that in humans.

“Defunded” police departments and their privately owned dogs should go to work for the Border Patrol. Those men and women (women were 14% of border patrol agents in 2021) do their job. The problem is that in 2022 their hands are tied by miles of political red tape. Those soldiers want to "Protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity." ~

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USBP) Academy has “one of the most challenging curriculums in federal law enforcement.” With police and Border Patrol beleaguered by this flood of illegals we are about to become a “third world country” where they eat dogs.

First published Oct. 3, 2022. Think about that when you go to the voting booth now.

TheDogPress.com EST 2002 © Oct 2022 https://www.thedogpress.com/Columns/Border-Patrol-Dogs-under-new-threat-Col22H101.asp

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