Died – 7\/27\/17
\nHandler – Detective Sgt. Josh Querin<\/p>\n
Police K-9 Bea fondly remembered<\/p>\n
The community lost a friendly, furry friend recently. Retired police dog Bea died early Thursday night. She was one-half of the crime-fighting canine unit with former Huron County Sheriff\u2019s Detective Sgt. Josh Querin, who was her handler for nearly seven years. \u201cShe turned 14 in May. Her health definitely had been deteriorating since she retired back in December,\u201d Querin said. Paws & Remember in Toledo agreed to cremate Bea and donated a free memorial box for her remains since she was a service dog. \u201cI wanted to thank Mapleview (Animal Hospital) for reaching out to them and Paws & Remember for being so generous in donating the cremation and memorial box,\u201d Querin said. In May 2010, Bea was “all-purpose certified” for drug searches, tracking and apprehension. Before Querin obtained the German Shepherd and Bea worked for the sheriff\u2019s office, she performed drug work on cargo ships for the Drug Enforcement Agency. \u201cShe had done that since she was 5 or 4 \u00bd (years old),\u201d Querin said. Once he became Bea\u2019s handler, Querin said Bea \u201cknew everything she was doing\u201d and it was a matter of getting himself \u2014 the handler \u2014 on the same page as his dog. Initially, former Deputy Scott Plew was Bea\u2019s partner and then the dog was transferred to Querin.
\n\u201cI received her in March of 2010,\u201d said Querin, who became a certified canine handler with Bea two months later. \u201cWe had a drug find within 20 minutes of being certified.\u201d In the first seven months on the road, Bea and Querin collaborated on 88 drug seizures. The former detective estimated his dog was involved in hundreds of drug-related searches during her law enforcement career. \u201cJosh and Bea were the most successful team we had,\u201d said now-retired Sheriff Dane Howard shortly after Bea retired. \u201cBea always had a powerful nose on her.\u201d Compared to other police dogs, Bea \u201cwas a pretty unique canine,\u201d Querin said. He explained that many dogs \u201cwill go nuts\u201d when left in an officer\u2019s air-conditioned cruiser and a person walks by or because the dog is barking so loudly, the officer can\u2019t hear a dispatcher. \u201cBea wasn\u2019t that way. She was ready to go to work every day,\u201d Querin said. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t wound up like other dogs.\u201d In fact, when there were visitors to the sheriff\u2019s office, Bea was quick to seek out some attention and petting. \u201cWhen she was off-duty, she was like a family pet,\u201d Querin said. Bea was by her owner\u2019s side when he volunteered to ring the bell for The Salvation Army during Christmas time. \u201cPeople loved it,\u201d Querin said. Mike Cooksey, Querin\u2019s former co-worker at the sheriff\u2019s office, knows all about the deep the connection between a handler and a police dog. As a deputy, Cooksey and a German Shepherd named Irco were the first canine unit in the department, serving under Sheriff Richard Sutherland. The pair worked together for 13 years. Irco died after suffering from degenerative kidney failure. \u201cI cried like a baby when he was put down,\u201d said Cooksey, who retired as the jail administrator. \u201cHe was the best partner I ever had. He had my back all the time.\u201d When asked about Bea, Cooksey said \u201cshe was a good drug dug\u201d who kept her focus and \u201cwent right work\u201d even when people were nearby. \u201cShe was very meticulous,\u201d he added, saying Bea had no problems finding narcotics. \u201cShe loved kids.\u201d Querin said the best part of being Bea\u2019s partner was seeing \u201ckids\u2019 faces light up\u201d upon seeing his dog when they visited schools or did public demonstrations. \u201cThere would be five or six children on top of her. She was so laid back, she was OK with it,\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe never lost her cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Died – 7\/27\/17 Handler – Detective Sgt. Josh Querin Police K-9 Bea fondly remembered The community lost a friendly, furry friend recently. Retired police dog Bea died early Thursday night. She was one-half of the crime-fighting canine unit with former Huron County Sheriff\u2019s Detective Sgt. Josh Querin, who was her handler for nearly seven years. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-3794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-oh"],"yoast_head":"\n