Police officers raising money to purchase protective vest for K-9 Sonic
Published 12:09 pm Thursday, August 28, 2014
Lt. Matt Holten and Sonic poses with police officer Mark Walskil outside the LEC. The duo are spearheading a fundraiser to raise money for a protective vest for Sonic. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Members of the Austin Police Department are carrying the burden for its K-9 partner.
Police officers Mark Walski, Kim Lenz, Rian Jones and Tim Donovan will be running in the Community Against Bullying’s upcoming 5K next month in an effort to raise money to buy protective armor for Lt. Matt Holten’s K-9 partner Sonic.
The foursome will not simply be running in the event, though. They will be running in their Special Incident Response Team armored vests.
“We feel he should be equipped as we are,” said Walski.
The goal is to raise $1,000 — the cost of one vest. Living up to that goal might be something different. The vest the officers will be running in weighs about 25 pounds. In comparison, the SIRT members, when completely geared up, can be carry about 50 pounds.
While it’s worth it for the officers to be wearing that protective gear, they also feel it’s just as important to be protecting dogs like Sonic, who often times are tasked with going into dangerous situations looking for suspects.
“There have been a couple of dangerous situations,” Holton said, talking about past instances where Sonic has entered homes. “There’s started to be an uptick nationwide of dogs being hurt by suspects.”
Holton and Sonic have recently been working closer with SIRT, again highlighting the need for protection.
“One of the things Sonic is good at is entries,” Holton said. “We want to protect him when he’s clearing a building.”
The vest is both stab and bullet resistant and is measured to fit the dog.
Though the goal is to raise money for the vest, there is a parallel goal.
To continue to raise both awareness and money for CAB and their superhero-themed race on Sept. 13.
“Any money we have left over goes back to help the cost of the race,” Walski said. “We’re also supporting CAB who is putting on their first race. We’re kind of hoping the Superhero Dash will bring out those who haven’t run before.”
Anybody wishing to help support the effort to raise money for the vest can drop off their donation at the Austin Police Department or the day of the race. They can make the checks out to CAB.
