Trading Cards to Honor a Special Breed of Hitter

They may not have elusive sinking sliders or home runs galore, but Silka, Cody and General have their own trading cards, with full-color pictures and stats, like their career hits.

Drug hits, that is.

And Silka, Cody and General aren’t jock nicknames, but the monikers of man’s best friend.

The idea to immortalize the drug-sniffing dogs of the U.S. Customs Service on baseball-type cards came from Customs officers in Dallas who saw how popular their canine partners were with schoolchildren, spokeswoman Donna de la Torre said in Houston.

“During the course of their anti-drug speeches, they give a demonstration . . . “ she said. “The children are just thrilled to see the dogs find the narcotics.”

The cards also publicize Customs’ hot line, telling readers they can help the dogs stop drug smuggling by reporting “suspicious activities” to 1-800-BE-ALERT.

Only the 81 dogs from Customs’ southwest region are featured on the 2 million cards printed thus far, but the idea is spreading, said spokeswoman Kathy Hamor at Customs headquarters. Customs has about 240 dogs.

Some of the dogs are real heroes.

Silka in Nogales, Ariz., is a drug money champ among the pictured pooches. The Labrador retriever and Ridgeback mix, weighing in at 100 pounds, has detected $5 million in drug money since joining Customs in 1985. Silka’s busts also include 300 pounds of opium, 10 pounds of heroin woven into carpets, 120 pounds of cocaine and 700 pounds of marijuana.