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Equipment Malfunction Believed to have Led to Dog's Death


A K-9 with the Montgomery County Sherriff's Department is dead after being left alone in a car during a hot day last Sunday. According to Montgomery County Undersherriff Rick Robbins, the department believes malfunctioning equipment led to the dog's death.

"On Sunday, July 31, our K-9 handler and his partner, Blitz, were on duty. The deputy was in the office completing some reports and there were a couple of failures with equipment that we believe led to the death of the dog. This is still under investigation, so I can't say exactly what has happened. We're trying to come to some sort of conclusions of what actually happened."

The equipment Robbins referred to includes an alarm that is designed to notify the handler and any officer in the area that the temperature in the vehicle is too hot.

"If the vehicle gets too hot, there's an alarm system that lets the dog handler and anyone in the area know that something's going on with that vehicle, and then the windows would roll down in the back area. Also, there's a very secure kennel built inside the vehicle so the dog can't escape the vehicle when the windows go down. The windows go down, a big fan turns on within the kennel to cool off the inside of the vehicle. What we believe happened at this point - and it's still under investigation to see if we can determine exactly what happened - is the air conditioner quit in the vehicle; and then, at the same time, this alarm system did not activate for whatever electrical reason."

The entire department is grieving the loss of their fellow officer and a friend. Although some may have thought he was just a dog, the department knew Blitz to be a member of the team.

"It's emotional for everyone here at the Sherriff's office and in the K-9 dog handler community, but especially for (the department's) handler."

Blitz had been with the department for a year.

David Jenkins
August 5, 2016

RFD