Police Department Announces New “Drug Sniffing Cat” Named Saber: “The Gangs Hate Her.”

Source: LET Staff| March 31, 2020

MANCHESTER, CT- You’ve heard of K-9 officers.  But this new addition announced by the Manchester, Connecticut police department is a bit… different.

MPD announced that effective Wednesday morning, they’re welcoming a new addition to the agency – and it’s a cat.  A big, big cat.

“Saber” has been in training with K9 Handler Officer Rob Johnson, also known as “Rojo”, for about six months.

Because Bengals and Siberian tigers are protected under the Endangered Species Act, the tigers bred in America are considered “mutts” produced through inbreeding, and the sale of the tigers isn’t federally regulated.

“We actually don’t know the lineage of Saber,” said Lt. Ryan Shea, spokesman for Manchester PD.  “Tigers bread in America can be a mix of Sumatran, Bengal, Amur, South China, etc.”

Manchester Police received the grant in early 2019 from the Department of Justice, which covered the $3,000 cost of acquiring the animal along with an additional $47,000 to train and house the animal.

The annual food costs – in excess of $10,000 – were covered through a generous four-year donation by Law Enforcement Today, the largest law enforcement news network in America.

“I thought our National Spokesman Kyle Reyes eats a lot” said Captain Robert Greenberg, the founder of Law Enforcement Today who has been active in law enforcement for more than 30 years.

“I mean, really – you should see the bill he racks up when we go out to eat.  But he’s got nothing on Saber.”

When asked about the more than $10,000 a year that LET is going to have to “eat” to pay for Saber’s chow, he simply shrugged it off.

“I enjoy a good rib-eye steak as well,” said Reyes.  “Young tigers like us have to eat.”

At first, people thought it was all a joke.  After all – who would think that a police department would bring a cat into the agency?  But it turns out that ownership in the animals is growing nationwide.

And it’s thanks, in part, to a new docu-series that brought to light the fact that tigers are actually legal to own in most states.

“People just started taking an interest in tigers because of some new show on Netflix I guess,” said Officer Johnson.

“I’m more of a Hulu guy myself, so I don’t know much about that.  All I know is that we’ve been training my new partner for almost a year and she’s nearly ready to go on the road.”

Is she dangerous?

Well, that depends – are you a good guy or a bad guy?

“She’s a big pussycat,” said Officer Johnson.  “She loves to cuddle – we actually had to get a California King size bed because she’s constantly climbing into it.  The key is in not letting her get hangry.”

 That “hanger” is actually a secret weapon.

“The zoologists and the Department of Justice Field Training Manual actually suggested depriving her of meat for six hours before a drug raid,” said Officer Johnson.

“Hartford’s SWAT team brought Saber in and made the mistake of depriving her for seven hours – the end result wasn’t pretty.”

After the raid, Saber was tested for drug exposure but came back with a clean bill of health.

“Her growl is definitely not worse than her bite,” said Lt. Shea.

But she fits right in at the agency.

“She’s going to make a welcome addition to the family at the Manchester Police Department, where we have a zero-tolerance policy for drugs and criminals in our area.”

As far as what the future holds for her handler?

“What can I say?  There’s a new Tiger King in town, and it’s Officer ‘Rojo Exotic’ Johnson.”

Lt. Shea offered us a behind-the-scenes look at the training on Wednesday morning.  For some reason, it was a little… glitchy.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was on April 1…