Moved by K-9's story, animal rescue group offers to micropchip Metro police dogs

BROOKLYN CENTER -- For the past four years, the folks behind Midwest Animal Rescue and Services have devoted themselves to helping dogs and cats with sad stories find new homes, and a second chance.

It should come as no surprise then that the story of Felony the black lab touched them, and inspired action.

At ten years of age, Felony was nearing the end of his K-9 career with the Howard Lake Police Department. It just wasn't supposed to end like this.

It was October 30th when one of the drug sniffing dog's human partners came to his kennel at the Howard Lake Water treatment plant to pick him up, and found that Felony had broken out. That officer phoned the chief, and then called the Wright County Humane Society.

The dog wasn't there yet.

As it turns out, Felony showed up at the home of a Howard Lake resident, and was picked up by the local dog catcher. The city's police chief says the dog wasn't dropped off at the Humane Society until the next day.

"Our officer contacted the Animal Humane Society shortly after contacting the dog catcher, said Chief Tracy Vetruba. "Unfortunately, at that time the dog catcher still had the dog, who he did not believe was our dog, and it 'was' our dog."

With no tags, microchip, or follow-up phone calls, a spokesperson for the Animal Humane Society said workers had no idea Felony was a K-9 officer. The dog was placed on a 5 day mandatory hold, during which he demonstrated aggressive behavior. Tests labeled him as dangerous and unadoptable, and Felony was euthenized.

"It's kindof like the perfect storm of events coming together to result in a tradedy," said Vetruba. "Our officers were devastated to learn that he was put down. He will absolutely be missed by our officers."

Last night, Midwest Animal Rescue and Services emailed KARE 11, saying they were going to offered to free microchips and registration services for police dogs across the Metro.

"We were touched by the story, and simply made a decision as a board to offer our services, donate the chips, make sure they were implanted, and assist the different departments with registraion," explained Board Member Barbara Fleishhaker.

Tuesday morning, Fleishhaker talked to the St. Paul Police K-9 unit, and began discussions about microchipping their 19 dogs. The organization will reach out to other departments in the coming days.  

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