We are Hancock County Search Dogs, an all volunteer K9 search and rescue unit, located in Greenfield, IN. We are currently in the process of obtaining our 501c3 status, and have been waiting several months for approval. We have "scent specific" bloodhounds, that are trained to find only the scent we give them. They are a very useful tool for law enforcement, but most departments cannot afford to add these type K9's to their roster. They struggle just to pay routine department expenses. That is why we offer our services for NO COST to law enforcement. Most of the time, any expenses we incur, we pay for out of pocket. We would not take payment for our services.
In order to be able to continue to do what we do, we rely on donations from the public. It is not easy asking for help, when we are the ones that help people usually. But at this time everything we do comes from out of pocket, this includes expenses we incur to keep our K9's in working health (vet bills, food, medical emergencies), training fees, etc. We are currently awaiting approval from the IRS for 501c3 not for profit status, but in the meantime we are trying to pay off debts to our wonderful veterinarian, who has let us "run a tab" on these guys for the last few months. Also funding is needed for expenses when we go on searches, like gas expenses, hotel expenses, etc. We also plan on certifying two of our bloodhounds, those expenses can get pretty high because we have to travel to attend the workshops where they are available.
Our oldest K9, Jersey Joe, has worked his entire life, he has given us everything he has. He came from a bloodhound rescue at a year and a half old, he had never lived in a home prior. He will be 9 years old at the beginning of 2014. About 5 years ago, he was injured while working, and became partially paralyzed. By some kind of miracle, we found a vet who would bring him back through chiropractic treatments, and he went on to work many cases successfully, and help out law enforcement. Joe still goes through regular adjustments, as arthritis was inevitable. We hope through donations from the public, Joe can have a "pension" to pay his medical expenses, as he enjoys retirement from the working dog world.
We recently obtained a pup to be his "understudy", so that Jersey Joe can retire. This pup is named Garrison, he is named after a local sheriff deputy who died on duty. Garrison is 4 1/2 months old, and all of the puppy vet appointments, combined with Joe's expenses, sent our vet bill soaring. Garrison is doing great though, and is a very healthy boy!
Magnus is our middle bloodhound, he is 1 1/2 years old. His handler has owned two other bloodhounds before him that each died of a condition called "bloat/torsion". Max was his first, he died at 2 1/2, and Cash was his second, he died also at 2 1/2. To say the least, both losses were quite devastating personally to us, and also to our team. Magnus is an awesome trailing dog, and is our main search dog right now. We are planning on having a preventative surgery done on both Magnus and Garrison, called Gastropexy, which is basically where they open the dogs body up and secure the intestines to the rib cage, so that if ever that dog DOES bloat (which we pray it never happens again, that was the most heartbreaking thing to go through EVER) the stomach will not flip and cause torsion. Torsion cuts off blood flow, and basically the tissue becomes dead, there is no fixing it if this happens and tissue is dead. The dog will die, or have to be euthanized.
So this is a little about us. We will come out to help law enforcement 24/7, 365 days a year, yes even on a holiday, that makes no difference to us. Missing persons need our help WHENEVER they go missing. We do this because we want to help, but the only way we can help is if we have the funding to keep our K9 program going. Please check out our Facebook page, we always post updates of what we and the bloodhounds are doing. Thank you for your donation, if it were not for help from the public, we could not continue to do what we do with these bloodhounds.