Drug dealers, not taxpayers, paid for Butler County K9 teeth repairs

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office has paid for the capping of teeth of two of its K9 officers with titanium, but drug dealers — not taxpayers — footed the $6,000 bill.

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And Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, quashing a rumor tweeted at him on Tuesday, said his office is not spending tens of thousands of dollars to pay for titanium to be implanted on the dogs’ incisors.

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Two of the department’s five K9 officers had titanium caps placed on their teeth because they are “bite” dogs and have damaged them through the course of their service, according to the sheriff’s office.

Because the dogs are law enforcement officers, their medical bills are the responsibility of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, according to Jones.

Money for the veterinarian bills for the two dogs was paid for out of the department’s drug forfeiture funds, the sheriff said.

“The taxpayers didn’t pay for it,” Jones said. “The drug dealers did.”

Only two of the dogs are “bite” dogs and the other cross-trained dogs have dual purposes, such as bomb sniffing and drug-sniffing.

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