Handler – Officer Mary Ellen Sawicki<\/p>\n
Herc, retired Buffalo police dog, dies<\/p>\n
Herc, a retired Buffalo police dog, has died. Herc, a German shepherd, died after a brief battle with cancer, the Buffalo Police Department said on Wednesday. He retired at the end of 2014 when his handler, Police Officer Mary Ellen Sawicki, also retired. “We would like to extend our condolences to the Sawicki family,” the department said. Herc began his service on Dec. 7, 2007, and during his career carried out 4,365 searches of homes, vehicles and school lockers. He was brought to the United States from the Czech Republic with his brother to be pets. But the family who owned him ended up finding the dog to be a little hard to handle. A retired Amherst K-9 officer and a boarding kennel owners came across him and thought he’d be a good fit for the force. Sawicki retired after 34 1\/2 years as a Buffalo officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Handler – Officer Mary Ellen Sawicki Herc, retired Buffalo police dog, dies Herc, a retired Buffalo police dog, has died. Herc, a German shepherd, died after a brief battle with cancer, the Buffalo Police Department said on Wednesday. He retired at the end of 2014 when his handler, Police Officer Mary Ellen Sawicki, also retired. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-ny"],"yoast_head":"\n