President Trump said Friday that he wants to provide Border Patrol agents with more dogs to help them guard the southern border and sniff out more smuggled drugs.
As he vetoed a resolution disapproving of his emergency declaration at the border, Mr. Trump said he wants to provide law enforcement with more equipment, including “more dogs.”
“Nothing replaces a good dog,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on equipment, but I will say this — it’s not as good as the dogs. We haven’t been able to match the dog.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Canine Program has more than 1,500 canine teams, although not all of them are involved in drug detection at the border.
Many are also used to search for explosives in possible terrorist plots.
The president noted his own positive experience with canines used by the Secret Service, referring to “certain types of German Shepherd.”
And he expressed admiration for a canine’s ability to alert on containers with drugs.
“They’ll run by 15 boxes, all empty, except one,” Mr. Trump said to a group of law enforcement officials in the Oval Office. “They’ll coming running full speed and stop on a dime. They know the drugs are in that box.”
He added, “You have the best equipment, but we’re getting a lot of dogs for the various entry points also.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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