K9 KRASH EUTHANIZED AFTER RETIRING FROM HANFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT

Cferg

Notable member
K9 Krash euthanized after retiring from Hanford Police Department | abc30.com

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- K9 Officer Krash started his service in May of 2019 at the Hanford Police Department.

But his euthanasia in January of 2024 has left many questions unanswered.
Community members, like Dionicia Parks, say they are at a loss overhearing the devastating news.

"It's just so sad it's sad that he was put down with not every option exhausted for him," says Dionicia of Hanford.

She is heartbroken over the death of the retired Hanford Police K9.

She found out about Krash's euthanasia in a now-deleted Facebook post and shared her concerns at a recent city council meeting.

She now keeps photos of Krash in her home as a reminder of her mission to be his voice, "That dog didn't have a voice, it didn't have an advocate for it."

The City of Hanford says Krash joined the department in May 2019 and retired in October 2022 due to medical reasons.

The Belgian Malinois was put down on January 31. He was seven years old.

"The person or people that demanded this dog to be put down have a really long story with God, they have to face judgment for that," Dionicia mentions.

The City says Krash's handler was caring for him up until two months ago.

Before that, they worked with the department's K9 Handlers to reach a "Conditions of Canine Acceptance" agreement, which sets specific requirements for keeping a retired police dog.

In a statement, the city says quote:

"Krash's handler notified the City that they could not agree to such terms and therefore would relinquish the K-9 to the City of Hanford. After considering options, none of which resulted in a safe post-retirement situation, the City made the difficult but necessary decision to put Krash to sleep."

We reached out to Krash's handler who is unable to comment on the matter.

The city also shared that Krash was previously involved in an on-duty biting incident of a bystander, but he continued to work for the department afterwards.

Dionicia believes the K9 that was trained to serve and protect should not have been euthanized after dedicating years of his life to the department. She says she's even reached out to rescues that would have taken him in.

"The facts need to come out, the truth needs to come out, because anyone can make a statement. But we want the truth, we want documentation, we want the facts to come out," says Dionicia.

The City says all of the department's other current K9 handlers agreed to the conditions of the new document.

The statement also refers to the tragedy involving a retired Exeter K9, which killed a woman and wounded her neighbor in Grover Beach.

That 2016 case led to a lawsuit with a $20 million verdict.

But Dionica believes killing Krash was not the right way to prevent a similar situation.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The city also shared that Krash was previously involved in an on-duty biting incident of a bystander, but he continued to work for the department afterwards.
This part tells a story.
Liability insurance is probably huge for something like this.

40ish years ago we had a neighbor with a retired K-9 GSD.
Was a big boy.
I made some money several weekends going to feed him and let him in the pool when they went out of town.
My family had a GSD at the time so I wasn’t intimidated by him but definitely had respect for him.

He turned on uniforms.
His owner was a motor cop and in the small town we were in they let him take it home after shifts.
He had a closet in the garage and had to change out of uniform before he could go in the house.

The dog went through a front screen door after a mailman dropping mail in their box on the wall outside the front door.
Molested him pretty good.
As he was trained to do.


I could easily see both sides of this deal.
Where there’s a will there is a way.
Tough deal as the dogs handler/owner.
Rambo with teeth on the end of the leash.
 
The dog pays the price for incompetent humans.

The story of Krash, I can't quite get the whole story, but if he had civilian bites on the wrong target that should be retirement from the PD. If it was a fair world, I'd say the handler should have the choice of keeping him in his own home with extremely controlled conditions. If the handler didn't want him it would be unethical to rehome him so euthanasia would be the only option. Sure, he could go back to training, but at 7 years old he's nearing the end of his career and it probably wouldn't change much.
The GSD, his owner was so aware that the dog wanted to bite a uniform, why on earth did he leave the dog where he could hit a screen door?

I've said before, I don't care if you have Jack the Ripper for a pet, if you have a double fence, electrics top & bottom, secure the dog from the public, that dog can spend the rest of his life in a real home with his person and never injure anyone. Bad training and bad management gets dogs killed, and fairly so.

I saw some police K9's at a club I visited getting retrained for bad behavior, one was a GSD that I personally thought had no business working with the PD. I don't know if they ever "fixed" him, but he was the kind you read about that nobody could call off.
 
This is in my town. I’ll try to find another follow up article with additional info. But to make a long story short the handler did take the dog after he was retired. It was a few months later he was euthanized.

What exactly happened I don’t know. I’m guessing once the dog was no longer going to work 3-4 days a week. The officer/owner figured he would try to incorporate the dog into his personal family life. The dog might not have been as easy as he was when you were only worried about getting him from the kennel to the cruiser and then let out to bite somebody or search. That’s not quite as dynamic as living with your family.

Might be an unpopular opinion here. But what kind of life was the dog going to live in side of a kennel the rest of its life. Especially after he spent 4 years doing what he was bred to do. Living the ultimate malinois life being a police K9.

I think this officer lives only a block from me. I haven’t seen the K9 cruiser parked at his house in the time frame from when they said he was retired. And there were only two or three K9s in the department. So it would be a hell of a coincidence if my neighbor isn’t this officer.
 
The dog might not have been as easy as he was when you were only worried about getting him from the kennel to the cruiser and then let out to bite somebody or search. That’s not quite as dynamic as living with your family.
exactly.

There is a place in Texas - can't recall the name right now - they take retired military K9s. They re-home the dogs that didn't do bite work but the bitey dogs I think they did not. They have some kind of set up to provide the best life for the aggressive dogs, but so many of them are totally social outside their previous work-duties. The sad thing about military K9s is when the dog is retired but the handler is not. I'll see if I can find that site. Many retired bite dogs could be fine in a normal home life with the right handler, but the liability is impossible.
 
The GSD, his owner was so aware that the dog wanted to bite a uniform, why on earth did he leave the dog where he could hit a screen door?
I should have written it more clearly.
That incident was the turn.
He got ugly at any uniform after that day.
 
exactly.

There is a place in Texas - can't recall the name right now - they take retired military K9s. They re-home the dogs that didn't do bite work but the bitey dogs I think they did not. They have some kind of set up to provide the best life for the aggressive dogs, but so many of them are totally social outside their previous work-duties. The sad thing about military K9s is when the dog is retired but the handler is not. I'll see if I can find that site. Many retired bite dogs could be fine in a normal home life with the right handler, but the liability is impossible.
I believe you’re talking about Mike Ritland and hero dog foundation. They will place apprehension dogs if they can. But I believe it’s very few. Just because the amount of people that are qualified to handle a difficult dog that has been doing live bites there entire life is rare. Most of the dogs just live there life out in a kennel not doing much.
 

Back
Top