After seven years of service and nearly 80 felony arrests
attributed to him at the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department,
Jack, the sole K-9 unit in the county, was retired this week after
his handler was fired for undisclosed reasons, according to the
sheriff.
Hollister – After seven years of service and nearly 80 felony arrests attributed to him at the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department, Jack, the sole K-9 unit in the county, was retired this week after his handler was fired for undisclosed reasons, according to the sheriff.
Jack will spend his twilight years chasing squirrels and playing with former Deputy Adam Lobdell’s two young children.
While Sheriff Curtis Hill refused to comment on the specifics of Lobdell’s termination because it’s a personnel matter, he quelled speculation from some in the department that the dog Lobdell jokingly called the “big woolly mammoth-looking thing” could have been put to sleep.
“At no time did anyone have a conversation about the dog being put down,” Hill said. “It was always about that it was time to retire the dog.”
Lobdell could not be reached by phone at his home Wednesday and did not return phone calls to his cell phone.
Because Jack is technically considered a piece of acquired property of the sheriff’s department, the Board of Supervisors had to approve the retirement at its Tuesday meeting.
Although the staff report stated that “some individuals have expressed an interest in acquiring him from the county,” Hill said the department offered Lobdell the opportunity to keep the dog and he accepted.
Supervisor Pat Loe said she spoke with Hill about the dog on Monday after she noticed the item on the Board’s consent agenda. While she said she had not heard any rumors about the dog being put to sleep, she said she called Hill to make sure Jack’s home with Lobdell “would be the happy ending we were all hoping for.”
“I called him Monday when I was going over my agenda just to make sure that that’s what was going to happen,” Loe said. “That the dog would be reunited with his handler.”
Because police dogs are trained to attack people with certain commands spoken in German, often times if they are not given to their handler or someone with extensive police K-9 training they are put down, said Regina Davis, office manager with the Master K-9 police dog kennel in Southern California.
“We would never, ever give away a patrol dog to someone from the general public,” Davis said. “If they (the handler) don’t want the dog they’ll have them put to sleep if that’s the last resort. And it’s happened, I’m sorry to say.”
Davis said there’s no law that a police agency has to give a dog to someone with police dog training, but because police K-9’s are trained a certain way and are property of that department, they could be a liability.
“If they give that dog to someone and it bites someone, they’re liable,” she said.
But that shouldn’t be a problem for the county or Lobdell’s trusty companion for the past seven years – both on the job and as one of his family pets. Although in an interview in January Lobdell described him as a light switch – you can turn him “on” and “off” with choice German commands – Lobdell said Jack acts like any playful puppy while playing with his 12- and 6-year-old children and his two other dogs.
When Jack received a command in German he was “on,” and helped his partner make at least 79 felony arrests during his tenure at the department, Lobdell has said.
And although Davis said some younger dogs can be retrained with another officer if their handler is fired or leaves the department, Hill said that due to Jack’s age and several medical problems there was no reason to re-train him with someone else.
The department has already received approval from the county to purchase another dog from the same kennel Jack came from – Witmer-Tyson in Menlo Park – and train another deputy to be its handler, Hill said.
Hill said the dog and the training of a new officer have already been figured into the department’s budget, but Hill didn’t know exact figures Wednesday.
“That will be in October when budgets are approved,” he said.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
