<div><p>Far too often, people see Pitbulls and immediately think of violence. These sweet pups are given such a bad reputation based off stereotypes. </p><p>But the Clay County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina wants people to know that these dogs are intellectually and emotionally intelligent, almost to the same extent as German Shepards. </p><p>Sarah and Phantom, two pitbulls, were lucky to be given a chance by Sheriff's office. They both came from shelters from New York and Texas. Sarah would have been euthanized the next day had she not been rescued by the police department. </p><p>With help from Animal Farm Foundation in New York, and Universal K9 in Texas, both dogs were brought to North Carolina and are now going through training to become narcotic search dogs with the department. </p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd86732c00002100fef1af.jpeg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd86732c00002100fef1af_GH_content_550px.jpeg 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd86732c00002100fef1af_GH_content_650px.jpeg 650w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img><figcaption class="op-vertical-center">Sarah training with Deputy Harper<cite>Clay County Sheriff's Office</cite></figcaption></figure></div><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd84ed2c00002100fef1ae-3.jpeg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd84ed2c00002100fef1ae-3_GH_content_550px.jpeg 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/58cd84ed2c00002100fef1ae-3_GH_content_650px.jpeg 650w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img><figcaption class="op-vertical-center">Phantom, looking dapper in his uniform<cite>Clay County Sheriff's Office</cite></figcaption></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p>"They want to show the country and the world the loving and caring nature that most of us have experienced with our Pitbull's and show that the pound puppies have what it takes to go up against and sometimes exceed their expensive pure breed cousins," the department wrote on Facebook. </p><p>According to Clay County's Sheriff's Office, purchasing a new K9 officer costs anywhere between $15,000-$20,000 for a pure breed German Shepard of Belgian Malinois. </p><p>The department posted a long post on Facebook explaining the purpose and benefit of hiring two shelter dogs for their teams. Phantom and Sarah will be exclusively in drug detection, not criminal apprehension. </p><amp-iframe sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" layout="responsive" frameborder="0" height="9" width="16" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3D1291977747558888%26id%3D424322774324394&width=500"></amp-iframe><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p>Do you think more shelter dogs should be brought into police work? Let us know!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>