New York Times
In October, the Jackson Police Department in Mississippi announced the retirement of Ringo, a yellow Labrador retriever with a nose that could detect the faintest smell of drugs. After nine years with the narcotics unit, the department said, he would be going home with his partner, a detective in the department.
But Ringo ended up somewhere else, the police department announced last week. His handler, Officer Carl Ellis, quietly took Ringo to an animal shelter in a suburb of Jackson, where he waited for weeks for someone to adopt him. A police officer in the suburb texted a photo of Ringo to Randy Hare, a dog trainer in Jackson, Mr. Hare said in an interview on Monday.
He recognized him immediately. Mr. Hare had trained Ringo and another dog, a German shepherd named Alpha, for the Jackson Police Department about a decade ago. Mr. Hare said that while Ringo waited for adoption, the shelter's administrator started to suspect that Ringo might have been a former police dog and sought the help of an officer who ended up messaging him.
"Why would he turn his back on the dog and surrender his dog like that?" Mr. Hare said, referring to Officer Ellis, in an interview on Monday. "I never dreamed in a thousand years that he would pull this. I thought he would at least call me first and let me help him." Mr. Hare picked up Ringo about a month ago from the Webster Animal Shelter in the city of Madison, where he had quickly become playful friends with the shelter employees, and took him home. The shelter did not return a call seeking comment on Monday.
Days later, the department's chief, James E. Davis, found out about Ringo's situation and demoted Officer Ellis, a police spokesman said. "He wasn't pleased," the spokesman, Sgt. Roderick Holmes, said in an interview of the chief's reaction. "We treat our canines like we do any other officer with our department."
Officer Ellis was removed from the narcotics investigations team and assigned to patrol duty, Sergeant Holmes said. Officer Ellis could not be reached for comment on Monday, and Sergeant Holmes said he was not authorized to speak to the news media about the episode, which was under internal review.
While law enforcement agencies pay the veterinary bills for dogs while they are on the force, many departments stop covering them after they leave, said Richard Geraci, a trustee at the Retired Police Canine Foundation. Former police dogs can require expensive food, and their treatment for common ailments, such as cancer, can cost thousands of dollars, he said. "At least once a month, people whose dogs have cancer and can't afford it, they call and they are destitute," said Mr. Geraci, who is also a detective in the New York Police Department and has a police dog.
The Retired Police Canine Foundation helps pay veterinary bills for about 30 to 40 dogs a year from donations it raises, Mr. Geraci said. The foundation, which was started to support New York officers with retired dogs, has assisted law enforcement officials across the country, he said. Last week, Mr. Geraci said, he read a news article about Ringo and tried to contact Officer Ellis. He wants to know why he would give up on him.
"You are with them 24 hours a day. It's like having a baby," Mr. Geraci said. "If you have a dog for nine years, you aren't going to get rid of a dog for no reason."
