Visiting Tucson And Support A K9

I’ve been pretty busy the past couple weeks.  Two weekends ago I was at a wedding in San Francisco and last weekend I met up with my college buddies in Tucson, Arizona to reminisce and have fun at our old hangouts.  We even caught a football game in the middle of rain and thunderstorms.  I looked up at the banners along the stadium and thought back to our glory days and some of the great players on our football team during our college years.  Most football fans have heard of Tedy Bruschi who just retired this year after a stellar career with the New England Patriots.  Also, a big part of our Desert Swarm defense was standout defensive tackle Rob Waldrop.  I don’t remember too much about his NFL career so I decided to look him up on Google.

After Googling “Rob Waldrop”  I found out he did have a short pro career however one thing that came to my attention was his involvement in a program called Support a K9 and decided to write a quick post about it since we’ve been talking about K9’s quite a bit over the past few weeks.   Here’s some information on the program:

Support A K9

21 AUGUST 2007 TUCSON, Arizona — A little over a year ago, two local businesses purchased a trained police K9 for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department … A unique donation for sure, but the intent was to be far more reaching …

A trained police K9 provides long-term value — seven years to be exact — to the community and department far beyond the price tag of $11,500. In the time since the donation, “Rudy” (The K9) and Sgt. Greg Bargar (The Handler) have combined to accomplish the following:

They’ve recovered over $735,000 in drug money … Seized over 40-lbs of Cocaine; 25-lbs of Methamphetamine; 2-lbs of Heroin; 7400-lbs of Marijuana; And been involved with the search and arrest of numerous felony suspects for various crimes ranging from: Car Jacking, Kidnapping, Auto-Theft, Robbery, and various others.

One of the two local business men mentioned in the article was the aforementioned Rob Waldrop.  After the success of the first K9 “Rudy” Waldrop is attempting to duplicate donations in order to purchase another K9 for the Sheriff’s department.  For more information on how to donate to Support a K9 visit the website at http://www.supportak9.com.  If you click on the “I’m Interested” link in the horizontal navigation bar you can fill out the form with your information and the amount you’d like to contribute.

Thank you Mr. Waldrop for all the great football memories during the early 90’s and thanks once again for supporting your community with the Support A K9 program.

My Pension Vs Police Dog Pension

Well it’s not comparison since I won’t receive a pension if I continue my current day job.  I do save up for retirement and occassionally receive matching on my 401(K).  I really shouldn’t complain and should be happy to have a job through this economy.

I was pleased to read that even during these tough times that in some areas police dogs are getting improved benefits packages after retirement.  It does sound kind of funny…dogs receiving a pension, but these police dogs dilligently serve their community for seven to eight years and only usually have a couple years of retirement.

Police Dog Pensions

Photo by aresauburn

Here’s a little clip from the article Police Dog To Retire On Their Own Gold-Plated Pensions:

‘So we put together a package for the dogs. It covers the retired dog’s food, vaccinations and worming, vet bills, as well as complementary therapy.
‘They can also be kennelled back here when their handler’s on holiday.’

The cost is only several hundred pounds a year per dog.  These dogs serve the force for several years and protect their handlers from possible injuries saving the force money in the long term.  I’d say they deserve a pension and I’m glad to see that the Cambrideshire Police Force is recognizing their work as Police Dogs.

What do you think?  Do you think these police dogs should receive benefits after retirement?