Marlboro Protects Police Dog From Drug Overdoses

MARLBORO TOWNSHIP, NJ — Meet Saber. She's Marlboro Township's police canine and she helps the department chase down suspects, track and find lost children and sniff out drugs, including heroin.

Yes, heroin. Even here, the scourge of heroin addiction has crept into the bucolic pastures of Monmouth County horse country. Worse, what's also popping up is heroin laced with fentanyl, an extremely powerful opiate that is absorbed through the skin and can kill in minutes.

"From time to time we do find heroin down here and some of what we've found has been laced with fentanyl," said Marlboro Police Capt. Fred Reck. "Drug dealers have always 'cut' their heroin so they can sell more of it. They used to use things like baby powder. Now they're cutting it with fentanyl, which is prescription pain relief and is absorbed from a patch onto the skin."

Because fentanyl (the same drug that killed Prince) is so powerful, there is a growing concern about police coming into contact with it. In August of 2016, two officers doing a drug raid in Atlantic City took a whiff from an evidence bag that contained heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Both almost died.

“It became very difficult to breathe. Our hearts were racing. We were nauseous, close to blacking out," said Det. Dan Kallen, 40, in an interview with the Associated Press. “I felt like, ‘Holy crap, I’m going to die right now.’”

The incident prompted a warning from the DEA to all police departments nationwide: Don't touch the stuff. But what about police canines? On Oct. 27, 2016, three Sheriff's dogs were helping search a home in Broward County, Florida. Fentanyl was later found there, and all three dogs started acting strangely within a half hour of leaving the property: Sitting in the back of their patrol car, they were listless, staring vacantly into space and not responding to commands. The dogs were rushed to a vet, where it was determined they were overdosing.

"I will knock on wood right now that I have not had any officers exposed to it," said Reck. "But that's because we have lots of protocols in place: All officers must wear gloves in a drug investigation and we don't field-test anything we find; it all gets sent straight to the State Police lab. A dog doesn't have that option. The dogs are only taught to find the drugs. They don't know it can hurt them. By the time they smell it, it's too late."

All three Florida dogs were treated and survived. But after that incident, Reck said he tasked Saber's handler, Officer Donna Gonzalez, with finding a way to keep Saber safe.

Gonzalez talked to the two veterinarians who monitor Saber, Dr. Steven Tepper and Dr. Deborah Breitstein of Animal Health Care of Marlboro, which has a clinic on Rt. 9 at Union Hill Road. The vets told her that, surprisingly, Naloxone nasal spray, the generic anti-narcotic antidote for humans, actually works best.

"You spray some right into Saber's nose, the same way you would for a human who is overdosing," said Reck. "From there, we also needed a special breathing device that helps the dog inhale it and can also help the dog keep breathing if the animal is unconscious."

So Dr. Tepper and Dr. Breitstein donated a special canine-fitted oxygen mask and bag. The showed Gonzalez how to administer the Naloxone and how to use the bag if Saber ever accidentally ODs.

"We want to protect our police dogs so they can do their jobs. It's very well possible the dogs could die if they come into contact with these drugs," said Reck. "And it's tragic. They are only here to help our community."

Reck said he wanted Marlboro Twp. to be the first department in New Jersey to have the K9 training, but he just heard that Evesham Township has similar dog-saving procedures in place.

Photo supplied by Marlboro Township Police.