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CA City Lets Fallen Officer's Family Keep K-9/Family Dog

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.

October 4, 2017
CA City Lets Fallen Officer's Family Keep K-9/Family Dog

Sgt. Mike Pershall of the Modesto Police Department with K-9 Ike. (Photo: Modesto Police Canine Association)

1 min to read



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.

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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?”

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