Sgt. Mike Pershall of the Modesto Police Department with K-9 Ike. (Photo: Modesto Police Canine Association)
Modesto, CA, officials decided Tuesday that Ike — a 3-year-old police dog — can retire and live out his days with the family of his former handler, Sgt. Mike Pershall, who was killed in August by a suspected drunken driver.
The City Council voted 7-0 to sell Ike to the Pershall family for $1. Ike is a Belgian Malinois and cost the Police Department $9,137, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Police Chief Galen Carroll asked the council essentially to give Ike to the Pershall family. He said in an interview last week that this might not be popular with everyone — Ike is 3 years old and most K9s work until they are 8 or sometimes even 10 — but it was the right thing to do.
“It is not a good deal for the Police Department to lose the dog,” Carroll said last week. “But there is also the human factor of, you have a wife and two kids who just lost their dad, and that’s the family dog. What is the right thing to do?”
