May 29, 2008

Pet Pulse Photo

NEW YORK -- The underworld of drug trafficking has a scary trend: acquiring animals as pseudo pets and then using them in illegal operations -- that sometimes turn deadly.

As Policeman, a 900-pound Yorkshire pig, is tucked in for the evening, he gets cuddles from Kathy, his benefactor, and he covers his face in hay -- to get a good night’s sleep. At 10 years of age, he’s an old man and his life has been a wild ride.

According to Kathy Stevens, director of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary, Policeman came from a Bronx apartment where he had been seized by the police during a drug raid.

She believes he originally comes from a live market or a slaughterhouse, before he was picked up by a drug ring. He was hundreds of pounds overweight as most commercially raised pigs become if they manage to escape the fate of slaughter, since they are engineered to grow quickly and to grow huge.

Drug dealers often use animals as guards or as smugglers. These animals’ best hope of being rescued is the DEA.

“Having anything the size of a 1,000-pound pig is a method they would use just to scare anyone away – the law enforcement, but even rival drug traffickers,” said John P. Gilbride, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Although, law enforcement doesn’t have specific numbers on how many animals have been rescued from these raids, according to Gilbride, “It’s not that infrequent.”

“We had a case several years ago where the drug traffickers were using puppies,” Gilbride said. “They would cut open the stomachs of the puppies and place packets of liquid heroin inside, sewing the puppies back up and try to smuggle those puppies into the United States.”

Based on a tip, the puppies were recovered in Columbia, but of the four dogs, only two survived.

“The drug traffickers didn’t care -- they have no respect for human life and they certainly have no respect for an animal’s life,” Gilbride said.

Thanks to the quick action of the DEA, the other two surviving dogs have happy lives. One of the puppies was trained by the Columbian National Police as a drug sniffing dog. They named her Heroina. The other puppy was adopted by a Columbian national police officer and lives a quiet life in a home.

Gilbride’s advises citizens who see a dog, which appears vicious or an animal in need of care, to first notify the local police. DEA operates globally and goes after the drug traffickers of the highest level.

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