Nibbles the pit bull has gone from the victim of a crime to the one stopping it.
The pup was rescued from a pit bull fighting ring in Canada by the Throw Away Dogs Project, which rehabilitates rescue dogs and finds them jobs on police forces, according to CNN affiliate WTHR.
The Craven County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina found a job for Nibbles on the K9 division to fight drug trafficking, it said in a statement.
The Throw Away Dogs Project has placed more than two dozen rescue dogs in police departments, according to its Facebook page.
The program benefits not just dogs, which otherwise might have trouble finding a home, but also departments, which save thousands of dollars per police dog.
Pit Bulls
Pit bulls, and any dog deemed to look like one despite not having any pit-bull DNA, are the most prevalent in shelters (pdf).
Dogs labeled as “pit bulls” spend more than three times longer in a shelter than similar-looking dogs not deemed pit bulls, reports the Washington Post.
Many are among the 670,000 dogs euthanized each year, according to the ASPCA.
“Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbers—and since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that don’t slam the door in the dogs’ faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined,” the group said.
Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are “the most abused dogs on Earth.”
The CNN Wire contributed to this report
