Nov 4, 2007

Looking out for man's best friend

Donor helps fund body armor for police dogs

By Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

A San Mateo resident is on a mission to protect man's best friend and one of law enforcement's most valuable tools in the fight against crime.

Rick Nava, who owns a local Doody Calls pooper scooper service, is raising money to equip as many Peninsula police dogs with bullet-resistant vests as he can. He has already received a $1,000 donation to purchase two vests for Redwood City K-9s. Information about the donor from the Stanford area was not readily available.

Nava, 48, said putting a vest on a dog that may have to take down a criminal makes sense.

"I thought why not have a vest on a dog?" Nava said. "I think now that we supply vests to one department, the other ones will see what is going on and they will probably be calling us."

Nava said he has contacted several police departments on the Peninsula and the only one that seemed interested was Redwood City. In time, he wants to reach out to all Bay Area law enforcement agencies.

He is working with the Police K9 Foundation, which was started in 2003 by New York police Detective George Sichler and his wife Audra, who also owns a Doody Calls franchise. The Sichlers, who have dedicated the effort to the memory of their late son, Jake, have equipped 50 police dogs across the nation with the vests.

The $1,000 cost of the custom-fitted vests is what prevents most police agencies from purchasing them for their dogs, George Sichler said. "It's strictly financial, they just don't want to spend the money."

As a charity, the Police K9 Foundation can obtain the vests for $450 to $500. But the same company that makes the vests produces body armor for the military, which means it can take up to four months to receive the equipment, he said.

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a tragic event to get people to help out the cause.

George Sichler said he knew someone who was trying to obtain vests for police dogs in the Tampa, Fla., area. The donations did not start flooding in until late 2006, when a police dog and its handler were killed by someone on the run. Enough money was raised to buy 15 vests.

"People will go after a dog just as easily as they will go after an officer," Redwood City police K-9 handler Dan Schillaci said. Schillaci's dog, Clif, is the only K-9 in the department that has a vest.

"I put (the vest) on him for certain calls," Schillaci said.

If a call involves searching for or chasing down someone who may be armed, Clif wears the vest, Schillaci said.

The only drawback, Schillaci said, is that the vest weighs seven pounds, so the dog may tire more quickly with it on, but it depends what kind of shape the dog is in.



E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.