Maine girl works to get dogs bulletproof vests

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BATH – A robbery suspect had kept police at bay for 23 hours when officers sent in Solo.

The German shepherd had apprehended 19 criminals and found 11 missing people as a working dog with the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Department in New Jersey. Officers knew he could flush out the suspect.

Solo went inside with only his fur to protect him. Within minutes, the 3-year-old dog was dead from two gunshot wounds.

The dog’s death three years ago has helped to motivate children in more than 25 states, including Maine, to hold bake sales, wash cars and collect coins in tin cans to raise money to buy bulletproof vests for police dogs.

The goal is simple.

“Protect the dogs that protect us,” says 12-year-old Kelly Davis of West Bath, who has founded the first organization in Maine aimed at putting flak jackets on the backs of every police dog.

Davis has raised enough money for 13 vests at a cost of $650 apiece since she started Maine Vest-A-Dog last November.

Her goal is to outfit every K-9 in Maine – more than 50 police dogs – with a bulletproof, stabproof vest made of the same Kevlar material that is used to protect officers.

“Police go into a lot of places where they have to wear bulletproof vests, and it’s nice to know they have a vest that’s going to protect the dogs, too,” Davis said.

Her efforts are mirrored by children across the country. In East Dublin, Ga., 12-year-old April Candlish raised $1,200 by making fliers on her computer and setting donation jars in stores. In Tucson, Ariz., 9-year-old Michael Valdzel raised $900 through yard sales and selling bottled water at dog shows.

Stephanie Taylor, founder of the national organization Vest-A-Dog, has raised enough money since 1999 to put bulletproof vests on more than 100 dogs.

“I feel a lot better knowing that the dogs are protected. And the officers can feel a lot safer sending their dog out there anytime they go into a dangerous situation,” said Taylor, a 12-year-old from Oceanside, Calif.

The fund raising comes at a time when many police departments are too busy trying to put enough officers on the streets to worry about the added expense of outfitting dogs with expensive vests.

Losing a dog is not without expense, though.

It can cost upward of $10,000 to replace a police dog, which undergoes hundreds of hours of training, said Russ Hess, executive director of the U.S. Police Canine Association in Springboro, Ohio.

There’s an emotional cost, as well.

Losing a K-9 can be a devastating experience for a handler because the dog and the officer not only work together, they live together.

Mitch Lewis of the Bath Police Department in Maine said the bond between dog and handler is intense. During the three years he has had Apache, a 4-year-old Belgian malinous, the two have been inseparable.

“Off duty, he’s a friend; on duty, he’s a partner,” Lewis said. “Losing a dog is a tragedy for any officer.”

Solo’s memorial service in 1998 drew more than 1,000 people, including more than 100 K-9 teams from four states. But a bulletproof vest might not have saved the dog’s life. Solo died from a gunshot to his head, which the vest doesn’t cover.

“Would a bulletproof vest have saved Solo? I don’t know,” said Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph Oxley.

Oxley likened it to wearing a seat belt in a car. It may not prevent death or injury in all circumstances, but motorists are well advised to wear them. “It’s better to have the vest on than not,” he said.

Critics say the vests are hot and cumbersome, reducing the dog’s mobility and posing a potential distraction. In addition, the vests could make it easier for a suspect to grab the dog during a struggle, they say.

But the same arguments can be made for the bulletproof vests officers wear.

“There have been no instances of a bulletproof vest preventing a K-9 from dying from a gunshot,” Hess said. “Until we have that, there will be debate over whether the vests are necessary.”

The vests help protect dogs from knife wounds, broken ribs and bruises, Hess said. But he admits K-9s are far more likely to die from heat exhaustion from being left in a hot patrol car than from being shot.

No record is kept on the number of police dogs killed in the line of duty, but Hess knows of two dogs that were killed last year by gunshots. In 1999, two police dogs in Jacksonville, Fla., were killed within a month of each other.

Only one police dog has been shot in the line of duty in Maine, back in 1981, said Stephen McCausland of the Department of Public Safety. The dog survived.

Children aren’t the only people working to put vests on dogs. There are dozens of programs with the same goal, including the Vested Interest Fund, a nonprofit group organized by the Associated Humane Societies after Solo’s death.

But the fact that so many children are proving to be deeply committed to vesting police dogs is particularly touching, Oxley said.

“That mostly kids are involved in this, I think that highlights that there is inherent good in people,” he said. “It shows there’s good in everyone.”