Many people throughout the world expressed shock at the photos of snarling German Shepards at the leash of U.S. military guards intimidating detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A report by the group Human Rights Watch claims Connecticut is one of two states in the U.S. that frequently uses dogs to extract unruly prisoners from their cells. The report calls the practice cruel, unnecessary, ineffective, and degrading. Yet corrections officers in Connecticut insist the dogs provide safety when inmates pose a threat, are suicidal, or may be unwilling to cooperate with needed medical treatment. WFCR’s Av Harris spoke with Jon Pepe, president of the Connecticut State Prison Employees Union. Pepe says he has participated in several extractions as an officer in the state’s Northern maximum security prison in Somers, Connecticut.