The Friends of the Reading Police K-9 Unit is asking for your help!
Since the Friends organization was founded in 2008 to help restart the K-9 unit in the City of Reading, the Reading Police Department has since retired seven of the original K-9 officers. These retired K-9s have served our community but, unlike retired human officers, the K-9s do not receive pensions.
The K-9 handlers who then care for their partners during retirement are faced with mounting medical bills. Recently, several handlers have incurred major medical costs for their retired K-9 partners.
For example, retired K-9 Officers Rocky and Reno both suffered from bloat/stomach torsion that required surgery and they had to be rushed to emergency care in the past year. Retired K-9 Officer Caine became ill and received medical attention, but he unfortunately passed away.The costs for this care has been staggering.
The Friends of the Reading Police K-9 Unit is unable to assist with those costs under our current structure. Our fund at Berks County Community Foundation is designated for the acquisition, training, and maintenance of the active members of Reading’s K-9 Unit. As much as the Community Foundation would like to assist with the mounting medical bills for retired K-9s, the donations that the fund has received were legally designated for the active unit and not for the retired, former K-9 members.
These K-9s have served our community with successful apprehensions, narcotics finds, and officer and public safety.
Please consider contributing to our Go Fund Me effort to assist with the care of these retired K-9s.