What’s Happening to Our Retired K9′s?
I just don’t understand this at all. Its always been my understanding that when a Police Department retired a K9 the Police Officer (K9 Handler) kept the dog like you’d keep any pet dog. Twice now in the past couple of months I learned that this is not always the case. Here are a couple of appalling horror stories of two retired K9′s. (Note that the photo is not of either of these rescued dogs!)
Retired K9 Found in Illinois Shelter
Very recently a retired K9 was found in an Illinois animal shelter. The handler had given the dog away and the people that took her in could not or didn’t want to keep her so they took her to an animal shelter where some wonderful people rescued her, fostered her, nursed her back to health and then turned her over to a German Shepherd Rescue where she’s currently being cared for pending adoption. I do not know what kind of nursing care she needed but being a retired K9 she should have been in good health to begin with. Thank you to the people who took the time and spent the money to care for her! I almost adopted her myself but I’m constantly fighting the “two dogs is enough” argument that constantly goes on in my head. If we could, my husband and I would probably take them all in! It just breaks our hearts to see the neglected and abused animals out there.
Retired K9 Locked in a Dog Run and Starved
The other K9 I learned of had an even more horrendous retirement. The handler locked him up in a kennel run for two years and ever so graciously fed and watered him just once a week! This poor thing had nearly torn his entire nose off trying to get out and suffered some horrendous pain and permanent health problems because of it. When I heard this I was absolutely furious! Again some wonderful people stepped in and were able to take him to a German Shepherd rescue where he received the care he needed and now lives a wonderful life with a loving family complete with a swimming pool to swim in!
Police Officers are Supposed to Care!
You would think they would especially for an animal who was their partner for however many years they spent together. Police Officers are supposed to fight animal cruelty by enforcing the laws and calling in the appropriate authorities to assist when they are faced with any animal suffering from neglect or cruelty. What kind of Police Officer would give their partner away? Depending on what the dog was trained for, they may need a very special home with a family who knows how to care for a trained K9. you certainly don’t want a take-down dog given to just anyone. Without the proper owner, this could mean a tragedy waiting to happen. What kind of Police Officer would lock their partner away in a kennel run and starve it?
What Kind of People are Our Law Enforcement Agencies Hiring?
Both of these K9′s were rescued from the State of Illinois. What the hell is going on in Illinois that would allow a Police Officer to do these things? I don’t know about you but things like this really make me wonder what kind of people our law enforcement agencies are hiring that are duty bound to protect and serve? Police Officers are supposed to care, they’re supposed to know better! They’re supposed to recognize and help alleviate pain and suffering not cause it at their own hands. If they’ll do this kind of thing to their K9 partner, what might they do to a human partner who needs them to back them up? Would they leave their human partner laying in the street with a bullet in them?
If for some valid reason the handler can’t keep the dog, there are people out there more than willing to take these dogs into their homes or organizations that will find the dog a good home. These dogs have put their lives on the line. These dogs would die for their human partner and are too often put in the position where they take a bullet for their human partner. They sniffed out drugs, bombs, took down bad guys, found lost children, located lost adults perhaps suffering from things like Alzheimer’s and backed up their human counterparts, doing a job that even some humans would never do. They loved, they served … only to be thrown away like garbage, abandoned or left to suffer at the hands of the person who they loved, cared for and protected so valiantly.
Police Agencies Need to Keep Tabs on Their Retired Dogs
Police agencies put mega-bucks into their K9 programs. Much funding comes from public donations and fund raisers held by citizens who truly want a K9 in their Police Department. For the duration of the dog’s service they are supposedly loved and cared for by the handlers. After they’re retired they more than deserve to be honored and respected, to have a happy, safe life with the handler that they devoted themselves to for so long. If that isn’t possible they should go to a loving forever home with people prepared to care for a dog of this nature.
So, what happens within the agencies themselves when a dog is retired? These two stories make me wonder. Do they not have requirements for the dog’s after-service care? The agency brought this dog into their care – they didn’t just hire a new employee. They have a responsibility to it. So where are their heads after retirement? Because it “served its purpose” it doesn’t matter anymore? These dogs don’t get a pension! Do the people who worked so hard to get the department their K9 know what happens to the dog after retirement? Or is this swept under the rug? If they knew what happened afterward, do you think so many of them would work to get and keep K9′s on their respective departments?
I’m beyond furious at and more than ashamed of the Police Officers who did this to these dogs and the departments who let it happen. I hope that somehow, some way they are made to pay for what they’ve done. Police Officers should not be immune to the laws they are sworn to uphold. Police departments really need to be sure that the Officer they’re allowing to handle their dogs is properly suited mentally, physically and emotionally to care for it not only during it’s service time but after. Judging from the fate of these two dogs (before rescue) the agencies who entrusted their dogs to these handlers did not do this. It makes me wonder just how these dogs were cared for during their service! No dog deserves to be treated as these two were, but to treat a Police K9 like this is nothing less than unforgivable and inexcusable. How many more dedicated K9′s both in service and retired are suffering?
Riley’s Place thanks everyone involved who rescued these two wonderful dogs and work to make better lives for them.
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That a police officer could get away with neglecting and abusing their former K9 partner is beyond criminally wrong. It is morally wrong even more so. I hope that the handler of the second dog at least was criminally charged with neglect and failure to get the poor boy much needed medical care. That God for the rescues that step up and help these poor victims of less then deserving “man kind.”
Thanks, Beverly. I don’t know what happened with the Police Officers, if anything but I totally agree with you.
I do think this is the exception rather than the rule…but then again I have another exception laying at my feet right now…K-9 Troo, retired from a Virginia city police department, ended up at the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue…via a surrender during an adoption drive at a shopping center…no one ever knew he was a working dog until I researched his background months after adopting him. Mine is his 6th home…and his forever home…he had food and skin allergies that forced his retirement…and then ended up emaciated, infected with heartworms, living with some very questionable people. The Rescue folks said they knew he would not live another year if they did not take him. Now, 1/1/2 years later he is 6 and loving life…playing with his ball 24/7 and acting like a puppy. His temperament is balanced and 100% social. He is loyal & obedient and the easiest dog to be around I have ever owned. I would encourage others to consider adopting these wonderful working dogs, who have given so much and expect so little in return.
Hi Thomas,
Rescue stories such as yours are sooooooo heartwarming to read. Thank you so much for sharing yours, for taking this dog into your heart and home and caring enough to see to it that he got healthy and happy. He’s a very lucky dog that you found him and it sounds like between the two of you, the feeling is mutual :)
Even if K9′s winding up in shelters or rescues is an exception — it’s not acceptable. It goes without saying that *any* creature (human or animal for that matter) being treated with cruelty or neglect is not acceptable. I was just so shocked that considering what K9′s do for people that even one of them would wind up in a bad situation after retirement. I really thought that law enforcement “took care of it’s own” and would *never* allow this kind of thing to happen. Apparently that’s not always the case when it comes to their K9′s. They’ll prosecute those who harm their dogs yet they’ll turn around and allow some of them to wind up in situations such as these. This makes no sense.
I actually thought that part of all law enforcement K9 policies would include requirements to keep the dogs after retirement. Silly me. How they can NOT provide properly for their partners beyond their working years is mind boggling. Far as I’m concerned — if you’re a K9 handler your responsibilities to your K9 are yours until the dog passes on even if that’s years after the dog’s work is done. I understand that things happen — serious illness for example — that might mean you must give up your retired partner but that should be a last resort and not include surrender to a shelter where there are to many people allowed to adopt who should not be. Shelters and rescues can only do so much and they only see what people want them to see when they go through the adoption process. It’s unrealistic to think that they can know with 100% certainty that every critter they adopt out is going from their care to a GOOD new home.
I know there are many in law enforcement that would never allow badness to happen to their dog and these Officers deserve all the gratitude that anyone and everyone can give them. On the other hand I know there there are K9 handlers who mistreat their own dogs while in their care!
Thank you again, Thomas, for being their for Troop!
Sometimes your friendly police officer isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. It takes a certain kind of personality to make a good policeman. And that personality type usually doesn’t even think of a dog more that just a tool to use on his job.
Hi Kurt,
Thanks so much for your input. I definitely have to agree with you. Not everyone is cut out to be a Police Officer and not every Police Officer should be a K9 handler. Like everything else there always seems to be bad apples in every basket and this is no different.
Dogs can be a wonderful tool to help to law enforcement. They deserve to be loved, well cared for and handled properly including wearing a vest like their partners do! They should not be treated like a hammer you toss into a toolbox when you’re done pounding in that nail. They most definitely should not be discarded when they’re retired.
I had no idea that police officers did such a thing to there K9 partner. How horrible. After all the years the dog puts it’s life on the line, for the police officer that is how they treat them. The dog deserves a life of a couch, pillow and blanket, a nice steak, and rest. but gets zero.
Those officers who do those kinds of things to the dog, should be locked up. For animal abuse.
But because they have/had a gun and a badge they get away with it. They think they are above the law.
I do hope there are officers that when they do retire do not treat the dog that way.
Hi Sis,
I know they’re not all like that but even one is one to many. I was even more horrified to learn of this than I am of all the other general public neglect and abuse stories. Police Officers are supposed to step in and help *cure* the problem *not* add to it by becoming contributors.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Apparently the training that K9′s go through is incredibly harsh (cruel and abusive if you ask me), if the website below is accurate.
Hi Christa,
Thank you for joining our discussion. I approved your comment minus the link you provided. Thank you for including it, but in good conscious I cannot be party to pointing anyone to a website with that kind of information if I cannot substantiate it as fact or fiction.
I really have no doubt that unfortunately, there are people (perhaps K9 trainers included) that treat/train their dogs in the fashion described on that website which is *absolutely* cruel, inhumane and in-excusable! There is no way to justify that kind of treatment for any dog for any reason whatsoever.
I can tell you that not *all* K9 trainers use these methods. I hope that the information on that website is very old and that these training methods are no longer in practice anywhere.