911 Dispatcher Creates First-Aid Kits For K-9 Officers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Police canines are usually the first members of law enforcement to enter a dangerous situation.
Members of law enforcement tell WCCO that caring for K-9s is quite expensive.
Plymouth Police Officer Matt Gliniany says it costs roughly $13,000 to raise and care for a typical police dog. His partner is 6-year-old Stryker.
Many police departments rely on whatever first-aid resources are available to humans to help with police dogs, but that is not the case in Plymouth.
"We send them into dangerous situations before we enter," Gliniany said.
He says a local company donated a training field for Plymouth K-9 unit officers to work with police dogs.
A local veterinarian also donated three medical kits for police dogs and first-aid training for officers to help with injuries in the field.
Gliniany says most police departments in Hennepin County are not as lucky as Plymouth.
"Before this, we would just hope whatever we had with us could help the canines," Gliniany said.
He credits the medical kits and training for saving a dog's life last summer. The police dog had heat exhaustion and a fever of 108 degrees.
"We have a thermometer in the kit, we were able to take his temperature and realize that was extremely high," Gliniany said. "And we were getting ready to administer an IV, and that's about when we got the temperature and decided to rush him to the vet," Gliniany said. "It's a miracle he lived."
Hennepin County 911 Dispatcher JoEllen Kimmel has been working as a dispatcher for 20 years.
"I often see how often the dogs are injured and off duty for a time due to an injury," Kimmel said.
That is why Kimmel is working in her spare time to raise money to get similar medical kits to every police dog in Hennepin County.
Kimmel hopes to raise funds for 56 more kits to be filled with about 30 products. She says each kit was assembled with input from a University of Minnesota veterinarian, and will cost roughly $200 to $300 per kit.
She eventually wants to create a non-profit to give these kits out for free statewide, as well as fund first-aid training for officers.
Kimmel says these kits are not meant to replace a visit to the vet, but they make it easier for officers to help in the field until a pet hospital can be reached.
You can donate to help Kimmel pay for medical kits by clicking here and here.
