Retired Gwinnett police K9 passes away at age 16 after serving for 7 years<\/p>\n
Working in Gwinnett County Police Department\u2019s K9 unit wasn\u2019t something Sgt. Botsford Finnegan had long dreamed of, nor was it something he had particularly trained for when he started an an officer in 1995. \u201cI was working uniform patrol before the K9 unit,\u201d Finnegan said, \u201cand it just so happened that we had a couple of positions open in (various) specialized units, the (K9 unit) being one of them. I saw the opening and it was just one of those things that you look at and say, \u2018Well that would be kind of interesting\u2019 so I (applied) and was accepted as a handler.\u201d What Finnegan didn\u2019t know at the time was that working as a handler would change his \u2014 and K9 Euro\u2019s \u2014 lives. Last week, after nearly 15 years with the Belgian Malinois, Finnegan and his family said goodbye to Euro, who had long been a member of the family. Surpassing the average longevity for his breed \u2014 Euro was 16 when he died, several years older than the average 12-14 year lifespan for Belgian Malinois\u2019 \u2014 Finnegan said the dog was a fighter, both in his career and retirement. \u201cWe went to the vet about a year go, last February,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cEuro had congestive heart failure and the vet said he probably only had a few months, but he lived almost another year and turned 16 in October, which, according to the vet, especially for that breed, is almost unheard of. Also having been a working dog, it was a long life.\u201d Though the reality of Euro\u2019s death is just beginning to set in for Finnegan and his family, he said he hopes to honor Euro for all that he gave to the Finnegans and Gwinnett police. \u201cMy wife and I had a serious discussion about what to do and whether to have a memorial service for him,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cA lot of times, (police) will basically have an officer\u2019s funeral for K9s, and that was one of our struggles. We went back and forth about it \u2014 has it been too long since he\u2019s worked to have that kind of service? Ultimately, we decided he had become more known to us as a family member and pet, but we still want to give him some recognition for his service and want to honor him.\u201d Euro, who served from 2003 to 2010, was a dual-trained dog, meaning he specialized in both narcotics detection and patrol work as well as search and tracking. Imported from Holland and brought to Gwinnett from Southern Police Canine, a police dog training organization that Gwinnett Police obtained its dogs from at the time, Euro had a number of successes in his career. Responding to more than 400 calls and handing 80 patrol and narcotics apprehensions, Euro\u2019s second drug bust yielded 550 pounds of marijuana. Despite downplaying the find \u2014 \u201cit wasn\u2019t sleuth police work, it was just our turn,\u201d Finnegan said, the sergeant emanated pride as he spoke about the dog. \u201cEuro\u2019s first apprehension was a robbery call where the guy was concealed in drainpipe under a bank parking lot,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cWe had to call tow truck to remove the grate and Euro had to go get him. These dogs \u2014 that\u2019s what they do. They go get the (bad) guys so we don\u2019t have to, and we put the dogs in harms way so the officer doesn\u2019t have to take that spot. That\u2019s the reason they\u2019re not just another dog or just another pet.\u201d That\u2019s also why Finnegan said he did not \u2014 and likely will not \u2014 serve as a handler for another K9. \u201cWe thought about it but had some hesitation,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cIt was the fact that Euro was still alive and we felt like he deserved our full devotion and that bringing another dog into (our family) would kind of discount his work and kind of say, \u2018You\u2019re the dog of yesterday,\u2019 which wouldn\u2019t have been fair. They\u2019re our protectors in a lot of ways and you can\u2019t fully repay that, no matter what you do.\u201d Finnegan said he and his family tried, however, to give Euro the care he deserved. \u201cI think what was most difficult in his retired age was his heath,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cWe always think about dogs when they\u2019re working but don\u2019t give a lot thought about what it will be like when they retire, and with Euro\u2019s health being the way it was, it was pretty labor intensive and we always had keep him watched at house and had to check on him and it was a lot of responsibility as a family. \u201cWe always looked at it like he earned it, though, because he did \u2014 even though we joked that in his old age, he was kind of like a cantankerous old man.\u201d Finnegan, now one of the supervisors for Gwinnett\u2019s K9 unit, said if he can impart any wisdom to the handlers he works with, it\u2019s that. \u201cYes, we went through all trials and tribulations of taking care of Euro when older, but I feel like I never fully gave back to him what he gave to me and, ultimately, to the department,\u201d Finnegan said. \u201cNow that I\u2019ve kind of lived the entire circle of K9 life, I try to give the handlers words of wisdom: enjoy time you have, because you\u2019ll never be able to give to dogs what they give to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Retired Gwinnett police K9 passes away at age 16 after serving for 7 years Working in Gwinnett County Police Department\u2019s K9 unit wasn\u2019t something Sgt. Botsford Finnegan had long dreamed of, nor was it something he had particularly trained for when he started an an officer in 1995. \u201cI was working uniform patrol before the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-ga"],"yoast_head":"\n