PARKER – Jaz, a seven-year-old bloodhound, has tracked down missing children and sniffed out criminals. She has lived, trained and worked with her handler, Deputy Nick Hall, since she was a puppy.
“She does it for the praise. She doesn’t like toys; she doesn’t even have a toy in the house that she likes to play with. It’s all about me getting excited and loving on her,” said Hall.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office honored police, military, search and rescue team and other service dogs like Jaz on Sunday in its sixth annual K9 Veterans Memorial Service.
“Any working dog from the past up to the present time, we want to honor them,” said Lt. Kevin Francis, who first had the idea to hold the annual service and has been in charge of it ever since.
This year’s service was held in Parker’s Memorial Park. Parker Mayor Richard Musgrave read a proclamation declaring March 13, the birthday of the United States K9 Corps, as K9 Veterans Day.
Previous services have been held in every Bay County city except Springfield, where it will be held next year.
“At that point, every city within this county has gone through the proclamation process of March 13 as K9 Veterans Day,” Francis said. That is his ultimate goal for the service; Francis may step down from heading it up every year once that goal is met, but he said the sheriff’s office will still hold the yearly service.
The Warriors Watch Riders came out to honor the dogs as well. The group honors veterans in parades, at funerals and other memorial services. About a dozen members lined up with American flags at the park.
“These four-legged guys are also veterans … Just because they have four legs doesn’t mean they aren’t deserving of the honor and respect that they’re entitled to,” said Ken Mouzon, a Warriors Watch Rider member.
Mouzon is a veteran himself and a former corrections officer who has worked with service dogs.
“They do their job and they’re good at it,” he said of the dogs.
Several K9s stood quietly with their handlers as BCSO Lt. Dennes Hutto and Greg May, director of Gulf Coast State College’s criminal justice program, spoke and read poems in ode to service dogs. Francis and a representative from Bay County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team read the names of service dogs that have retired or passed on.
The service closed with a shotgun salute and playing of “Taps.”