MISSOULA — The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) is competing in a social media campaign to enhance its K9 officer department. Xander, a two-year-old Dutch Shepard is featured in this contest.
The Sheriff’s Office has two K9 officers. Xander is the newest K9 Officer to join the force. Both dogs are dual-purpose dogs — they do patrol work, apprehensions, evidence searches as well as searching for narcotics.
The social media campaign is through Aftermath.
“They are providing money to help develop K9s. Whether it's K9 safety equipment or training, things like that. That’s where they money for that grant goes,” said Officer Justin Uriarte, who is a Senior Deputy with Missoula County Sheriff, and the handler of Xander.
Aftermath gives around $2,500 per region to the winner and Uriarte explains what the MCSO would use the grant for.
“I believe that we have a need for some things that go into developing the dog for patrol. So the big need that I see right now is bite suits for our decoys that work the dog. Those suits are fitted for a specific decoy, so you can get them kind of generalized but it creates dangers for the decoys and it’s actually unhealthy for the dog."
The Sheriff’s Office is also looking at fixing the obstacles the dogs train on in a field next to the Missoula County Detention Facility.
You can vote three times a day on Facebook, Instagram, and on the Aftermath website. The voting ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 5, 2023, with the winners to be announced on June 7. You can vote for Xander here.
