In
Loving Memory of
K-9 EIKO
April 1, 2006
Handler:
Officer Chuck Gray
North Andover Police Dept.
566 Main Street
North Andover, MA 01845 - 978-683-3168
Police dog dies of mouth infection
contracted during river search - By Jim Patten THE
EAGLE-TRIBUNE
NORTH ANDOVER, MA
Officer Chuck
Gray and his police dog Eiko were inseparable on the job
and off it. They had gone through a
grueling 14-week training course, which
taught dog and handler how to work together. They were
working together the night of
January 28 after an armed
robbery at the 7-Eleven on Winthrop Avenue in Lawrence,
tracking a suspect along the banks of
the Shawsheen
River, when Eiko, going through piles of debris,
suffered an injury that would end his life. Gray
didn't
notice anything unusual at the time and Eiko kept on
tracking, but a day later, Gray noticed a trickle of
blood coming from the 3-year-old shepherd's mouth, said
police Chief Richard M. Stanley. The following day, the
blood was worse and Gray took Eiko to the veterinarian
immediately, Stanley said. Eiko had suffered a bad cut
to the inside of his mouth which was infected, Stanley
said. "They didn't know the cause. They felt the dog
was exposed to an
electrical current or corrosive
material," he said. "There were multiple car batteries
and buckets of chemicals and wires." After oral
surgery, which left stitches in his mouth, Eiko was
eager to get back to work. "He actually came back to
work, but he started going downhill physically. A couple
of weeks ago he became very lethargic and stopped
eating,'' Stanley said.
"For a dog who was extremely
excited about working, he was just lying in his pen at
home and he could hardly walk."
Gray brought Eiko back
to the veterinarian numerous times to try different
medications. "Ultimately, they couldn't do anything
more for him,'' Stanley said. The normally exuberant
canine died aptly in the patrol car he loved getting
into. Every time Gray would bring Eiko outside, even
when he was sick, he would see the cruiser and try to
pull toward it, hobbling up to it as if to say, 'Lets go
to work,' until the last day when he had to be carried
to the car, Gray said. Saturday morning, Gray placed
the weakened Eiko in the back for the final trip to the
vet. Rather than carry the dog into the veterinarian's
office, the doctor went out to the dog. Gray crawled
into the back of the cruiser with Eiko
and held him as
the veterinarian, Dr. Kim Ackerman of Lynnfield Animal
Hospital, put Eiko to sleep. Eiko died in Gray's arms.
"This has been an exhaustive and emotional ordeal for
Chuck, who has taken this position as a K-9 officer
seriously,'' Stanley said. "They depend on each other.''
He said the death of the dog left a void, not only for
Gray, but for the whole police force. "This was a good
dog. It is a great loss for the department,'' Stanley
said. He said Eiko was the first police dog to die in
the line of duty in Massachusetts in 15 years. "I've
been a mess for two days,'' Gray said Monday, adding
that a close bond is formed during training. Eiko and
Gray had worked together for about 10 months, Stanley
said. "You start from scratch and teach the dog
everything he knows,'' Gray said. "Then you bring him
into the real world. He did some other tracks even
though he was hurt." Eiko was purchased from
Commonwealth Dog Training of Everett for $4,500, using
drug forfeiture money, Stanley said. He was trained for
crowd control, building searches, area searches, article
searches and was really enthusiastic on what Gray called
"bite work,"
or criminal apprehension. The department
has one other dog, Iris, a black Labrador retriever
whose partner is Officer William Brush.
submitted by Jim Cortina, Dir. CPWDA
In
Loving Memory of
K-9
EMILY
April
1, 2006
Handler: Deputy
Al Nelson
Jefferson
County Sheriff's Department
200
Jefferson County Parkway
Golden,
CO 80401-2697 - 303-277-0211
Deputy
Al Nelson, longtime member of the Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit, recently notified
coworkers that K-9 Emily, a bloodhound who went on 134 missions on behalf
of law enforcement, was put to sleep on April 1 because she was suffering
from cancer. Deputy Nelson purchased Emily as a puppy in 1997. Emily worked
alongside Marky, another bloodhound, and the two dogs traveled in the back
of Deputy Nelson's patrol SUV whenever he
worked. In the nine years of
Emily's time with the Sheriff's Office, her skills were called into service
for both criminal and non-criminal incidents for everything from
locating the bodies of homicide victims to finding lost children in the
woods. Emily was a multi-purpose dog, trained in tracking live people as
well as detecting
human remains. Of the many cases that Deputy Nelson worked
with K-9 Emily, 38 were homicide cases and 10 were specifically for NecroSearch
International, a nonprofit organization that specializes in the search
for
hidden gravesites. "At the latest count, there are at least 10 homicide
suspects serving time in prisons because of some of the work that Emily
did," Deputy Nelson said. In 2003, Emily helped investigators to find the
bodies of two slain women buried in a backyard in the Park Hill neighborhood
of Denver. The suspect, self-proclaimed
serial killer Richard Paul White,
told Denver police that he had killed those two as well as several others.
"We got there, and she found them within seconds," Deputy Nelson said.
A dog's confirmation rate reflects
the accuracy of its work. In Emily's
case, 94 of her 134 cases were "confirmed," meaning that she was a
factor
in helping to solve those cases. Deputy Nelson's expertise, along with
Emily's reputation among the law enforcement community, meant that the
team was called upon many times by agencies throughout Colorado and the
West. The team also made frequent appearances over the years in the local
news, and was featured by
the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and
National Geographic. In the Jefferson County community, Deputy
Nelson and
Emily made regular appearances at schools and community events where children
and adults alike gravitated toward the duo. Deputy Nelson has worked with
bloodhounds in law enforcement since 1984 and continues to do so. Emily's
K-9 partner, Marky, still works alongside Deputy Nelson as he patrols the
south area of Jefferson County, and is called into service for any incidents
that require a bloodhound's skills. In 2005, Deputy Nelson bought
a bloodhound puppy named Georgia. Georgia has spent the last year in training
to develop the skills essential to any law enforcement bloodhound, and
to try to fill Emily's big paws.
submitted
by lulu
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Memorials
to Fallen K-9s