Carson City K9 unit vested up and ready for action

One local veterinary hospital is making sure man’s best friend is well equipped for battle.

Sierra Veterinary Hospital raised $5,000 to get bullet proof and stab proof vests for the Carson City Sheriff’s Office K9 deputies.

“We decided that they do so much for us and they were protected like they needed to be so we wanted to be able to give back to the dogs,” said Sean Campbell, managing director for Sierra Veterinary.

The hospital has been raising money since December 2014 to get the dog vests. Campbell said the hospital saw a huge out pouring of support from the community to come together to protect the police dogs from harm.

“We just love all the dogs and their handlers,” Campbell said.

The Carson City K9 unit has five dogs currently, and each got their own custom fit vests from Vested Interest in K9s Inc., a non-profit organization that provides protective vests for law enforcement dogs. The process to get the vests was about eight to nine months, with fundraising ending about three months ago.

After getting the money it took about 10 weeks to get the vests in because all the dogs had to be fitted, said Carson City Deputy Brett Bindley.

“This has been great because it gives us a good peace of mind to know our dogs have a good piece of equipment when they are out on patrol,” Bindley said.

From here, the dogs trained for nearly 10 hours Wednesday to get used to working with the new equipment.

Bindley said the dogs have to get used to running, jumping and biting with the vests on.

All of the deputies were grateful the community raised the money to protect their furry friends.

“It is great, Sierra Vet approached us to do this and it was awesome,” Bindley said. “Every dog in the Carson City Sheriff’s Office has a vest now thanks to Sierra Vet and Vested Interest and it is really important because most agencies like us, don’t have the funding to get gear like this for the dogs and to have these organizations step up and get the money for it, we really appreciate it.”