During an arrest a few years ago, Buffalo police officer Ron Clark, Jr. decided
to look in the freezer on the back porch of a known drug dealer. He found a bulging
black garbage bag. Poking the bag with his flashlight, something in the bag moved.
Officer Clark feared that it was an infant; however, what he found was a Pit Bull
puppy.
The puppy was wounded, blood-caked and apparently had been used as bait to train
fighting dogs. The pup was undernourished, hypothermic and near death. SPCA adoption
counselor Shannon Willie knew that the pup, now known as Popsicle, was in terrible
shape. Once Popsicle regained his strength, the shelter contacted the US Customs
canine-enforcement officer Sally Barr hoping that he would qualify for the dog training
school in Front Royal, VA.
Barr tested 500 dogs and only 4 made the cut with Popsicle graduating top in his
class. A few years later, Popsicle made everyone proud when he detected a record
contraband cache under a tractor trailer. Popsicle helped the feds seize 3,075 pounds
of cocaine from a pineapple truck at the Mexican border near Hidalgo, TX for which
he was awarded the Significant Seizure Medal.
Popsicle has overcome so many obstacles. Officer Clark still does not remember why
he opened the freezer that day, but he feels like it was meant to be.