DONATION HELPS DEPUTIES TAKE BITE OUT OF CRIME

Milk-Bone And Stater Bros. Provide Funds For Drug-Sniffing Dog To
Complement Sheriff's Department

CHINO HILLS -- The newest member of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department has a nose for crime -- a wet nose.

When he is trained, Siren, a 1 1/2-year-old black Labrador retriever, will
be able to sniff out common narcotics including marijuana, cocaine,
methamphetamine and heroin as well as some of the newer drugs such as
ketamine, also known as Special K.

Siren is joining the Sheriff's Department as its fourth drug-sniffing dog,
thanks to donations from Milk-Bone dog biscuits and Stater Bros. markets.

Sheriff Gary Penrod accepted checks of $5,000 from Milk-Bone parent Kraft
Foods and $2,500 from Stater Bros. during a ceremony Monday at the Stater
Bros. on Grand Avenue and Chino Hills Parkway.

"Drugs are one of our main focuses in the department," Penrod said. "And
this dog will be a valuable tool in that fight."

The Milk-Bone donation is being used to buy the dog and the Stater Bros.
check will pay for its training, Penrod said.

Siren is one of 90 law enforcement service dogs that Milk-Bone is paying
for around the nation this year. Siren and the other county Sheriff's
Department dogs are not typical police dogs, but specialized drug sniffers
who after 200 hours of training are able to turn narcotics detection into a
game.

Sheriff's Det. Rick Swigart has been working with Taz, a 7-year-old red fox
Labrador retriever, for more than three years. The pair have located more
than $100,000 in illegal drugs during that time.

Swigart said unlike police K-9 dogs who are trained to be aggressive,
narcotics sniffing dogs like Taz are rewarded for being playful and passive.

He said a more aggressive dog might scratch or bite at a package of illegal
narcotics after sniffing it out, destroying evidence. Taz simply does a
little spin and sits down next to the location of the drugs.

"He normally doesn't sit a whole lot, so you know when he's found
something," Swigart said, adding that Siren will perform a similar passive
alert when he finds drugs.

Taz is getting ready to retire from the department and Siren will help ease
the work load for the older dog when Siren and his handler, Det. Patrick
English, complete their training in March.

Monday's check represents Stater Bros.' second donation to help train a
police service dog. The supermarket chain gave a similar check to the
Colton Police Department in June.

Stater Bros. also presented a $100 gift certificate to students in teacher
Jessica Annett's class at nearby Country Springs Elementary School.

All of Country Springs' third-graders participated in a contest to name the
dog, who was introduced with English, after Monday's check presentation.
But it was one of Annett's students who contributed the winning name.

The contest winner, 9-year-old Lani Burdette, said her father's job as an
officer with the LAPD inspired her.

"My dad used to work in a police car that had a siren on top," Lani said.
"I thought it would be a good name."

Sheriff's deputies thought so too, picking Lani's entry out of more than
100 suggested names.

Lani said she felt "really happy" when she learned that her name had been
chosen for the dog, who stood wagging his tail just a few feet away.

When asked how she felt after finding out a few seconds later that Stater
Bros. was giving her four tickets to Disneyland because she'd won, Lani
replied, "Even happier."