Died – 5\/4\/15
\nHandler – Deputy Victor Green<\/p>\n
Mysterious death of drug dog prompts sheriff\u2019s investigation<\/p>\n
The Shenandoah County Sheriff\u2019s Office has called in the state veterinarian to conduct an autopsy after the mysterious death Monday of Rex, the agency\u2019s drug detection dog. Deputy Victor A. Green found the 4 1\/2-year old Belgian Malinois dead in a Sheriff\u2019s Office K-9 equipped vehicle at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School in Woodstock where Green works as a school resource officer. Green was also Rex\u2019s handler on the department\u2019s drug detection team. Sheriff Timothy C. Carter described the death as \u201cuntimely\u201d in a written statement issued Tuesday. Maj. Scott Proctor said Rex was last seen alive 30 or 40 minutes before his death when Green stopped by the K-9 vehicle to check on his well being. Proctor said the dog appeared to be in excellent health and ready for work. Rex suffered from no known illness and had just been re-certified as a drug detection dog earlier in the day, Proctor said. No evidence of external injury or any unusual activity around the dog has been found. \u201cIt\u2019s a mystery,\u201d Proctor said of the cause of death. \u201cWe are conducting an investigation and will be awaiting the results of an autopsy.\u201d Rex started his service with the Sheriff\u2019s Office in July after completing several weeks of certification training under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Proctor said the Sheriff\u2019s Office acquired Rex from a U.S. government vendor. The dog had previously served with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, but Proctor was unsure of the dog\u2019s exact role overseas. Proctor said the loss was a blow to Green, who had trained with Rex in obtaining certification as a drug detection team. \u201cThis was basically this deputy\u2019s partner,\u201d Proctor said of Rex. \u201cIt can be a tough thing to deal with.\u201d Proctor said the vehicle in which Rex died was specially equipped for transporting a dog and keeping it comfortable with food, water and air conditioning. Proctor said the windows on the vehicle were \u201cprobably down\u201d on a day in which temperatures reached into the 80s. \u201cThere was no indication the vehicle overheated,\u201d Proctor said. Proctor had no specific information on how much the Sheriff\u2019s Office spent in acquiring, training and caring for Rex, but he estimated the purchase cost alone was probably several thousand dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Died – 5\/4\/15 Handler – Deputy Victor Green Mysterious death of drug dog prompts sheriff\u2019s investigation The Shenandoah County Sheriff\u2019s Office has called in the state veterinarian to conduct an autopsy after the mysterious death Monday of Rex, the agency\u2019s drug detection dog. Deputy Victor A. Green found the 4 1\/2-year old Belgian Malinois dead …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-va"],"yoast_head":"\n