Mass. Bill Would Create State Fund for Police K-9 Retirement Benefits

After two homemade bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, Newton Police Sgt. Daniel Valente and his K-9 dog Dakota responded by blocking public access to downtown Boston from their stationed position on Commonwealth Avenue.

Their work to protect the public in the aftermath of the bombing continued days later when they were called to Watertown to search for and ultimately help arrest Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Valente said in a 2023 documentary about his former K-9 partner.

Massachusetts communities are made safer by the irreplaceable work of K-9 units like Valente and Dakota, former Yarmouth Police Deputy Chief Steven Xiarhos said. Every day, hundreds of police dogs across the state complete important tasks their handlers would be incapable of doing alone, such as finding missing people and dangerous suspects that elude other officers.

Despite this, it is likely that only one member of these teams will be rewarded for their years of devoted public service with any kind of financial safety net upon retirement. The other will be expected to begin depending on their families for all their living expenses for the first time in their lives.

Affording care when a K-9 retires

This is the reality most K-9 dogs and their owners face when a K-9 inevitably stops working, Xiarhos said. The care of K-9 dogs is typically at least partially paid for by their police department while they work as a police dog, but when they retire, they’re suddenly considered to be merely a family pet, and the department no longer provides financial support for their care.

The result of this is that retired K-9 dog owners often struggle to afford the care necessary to keep their aging animal hero happy and healthy, Xiarhos said. This means that some K-9 dogs spend years risking their lives to save others, only to suffer the indignity of being euthanized when the cost of their care exceeds their owner’s financial means.

In Dakota’s case, years of dangerous law enforcement work left him unable to do much of anything besides run in circles in his kennel while barking and pooping compulsively. It’s a condition some characterize as canine Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (canine PTSD), though that is not officially a medically accepted diagnosis.

Most dogs in his condition are euthanized due to a lack of available or affordable treatment options, but thanks to K9 PTSD Center Founder James LaMonte, Dakota ultimately overcame his illness after undergoing years of treatment.

Despite his resilience, Dakota died of pancreatitis in 2022 at the age of 12. But LaMonte and Xiarhos — who is now a Republican state representative for the 5th Barnstable District — hope to honor his legacy by passing Dakota’s Law: a bill that would create a dedicated state fund for the care of retired K-9 dogs who served in Massachusetts.

“These dogs that serve our Commonwealth — when they retire, they should be taken care of for the rest of their lives,” Xiarhos said.

Dakota’s story — understanding PTSD in dogs

LaMonte originally opened the K9 PTSD Center in Seekonk as a K-9 training facility specializing in non-coercive training methods. He took in Dakota in 2019 after Dakota’s handler at the Essex County Sheriff’s Department (which employed Dakota after Valente had to rehome him years prior) contacted LaMonte looking for a place where the dog could live out his retirement.

At the time, LaMonte wasn’t regularly taking in retired K-9 dogs, but he said he agreed to take Dakota out of fear that the dog would be euthanized if he didn’t.

Dakota’s behavioral issues and debilitating anxiety became apparent immediately, LaMonte said. Over time, he began to recognize his own PTSD symptoms in Dakota and reached out to experts like Wheaton College psychology Professor Kathleen Morgan to explore the idea of PTSD in dogs.

Canine PTSD is still a relatively novel idea that is just beginning to be explored by experts, LaMonte said. But after a few months, he became convinced that this was the source of Dakota’s behavioral problems.

LaMonte became determined to help Dakota heal, but such an effort was entirely new territory for him at the time, and there were few resources he could turn to for advice on how to help the dog. One big mistake he kept making was to approach the problem like a dog trainer, he said. He would try to use commands and exercise instead of being mindful of Dakota’s triggers and trying to build trust.

As such, it was months before LaMonte started understanding what Dakota’s needs were enough to see progress in the dog’s behavior. But after about nine months, Dakota stopped compulsively pooping and spinning around in his kennel, and after about two years, he began functioning as a normal dog, LaMonte said.

Since then, LaMonte has refined his techniques for treating canine PTSD, and what took nine months to achieve with Dakota takes only a few weeks with new dogs, he said. He’s also begun using the center solely as a permanent home and treatment center for retired K-9 dogs with PTSD.

Dakota’s Law

After Dakota died, LaMonte struggled to heal, he said. But one thing that helped him overcome his grief was writing a heartfelt goodbye letter to Dakota.

“K9 Dakota, you were more than a dog — you were my best friend, my confidant, and my unwavering source of strength,” the letter reads. “You didn’t just walk alongside me; you walked within me, helping me find the broken pieces I didn’t even know were there. Through your resilience, your love, and your loyalty, you healed parts of me I thought were beyond repair, and for that, I will be forever grateful.”

In part of the letter, LaMonte laid out the rationale for Dakota’s law: that dogs that serve should receive support from the state when they retire, just like their human counterparts.

“I said, there’s got to be a way to give back to these K-9s that served, at least in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” he said.

Knowing that Rep. Xiarhos had championed Nero’s Law, which passed in 2022 and made it legal for K-9 dogs injured in the line of duty to utilize emergency transport vehicles, LaMonte pitched him the idea for Dakota’s law.

Around the same time, Xiarhos was invited to a screening of “Healing Dakota,” a documentary LaMonte and his friends made about Dakota’s journey to overcome canine PTSD, the representative said. Xiarhos found the documentary so moving that he cried.

Soon after the screening, Xiarhos filed Dakota’s Law for the first time. The bill didn’t get through the Massachusetts Legislature last session, but was reviewed favorably by the Joint Public Safety Committee. Xiarhos refiled it in this latest legislative session and has convinced two other representatives to sign on.

He’s also drummed up support for the bill among local leaders from across the state. Last year, the Springfield Police Department and Mayor Domenic Sarno publicly endorsed the law, recounting how a K-9 officer had recently been forced to create a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to pay for his retiring K-9 dog′s medical expenses.

“Our brave K9 Officers and their police dogs are an important team within our Springfield Police Department. It is only right that our police dogs have a special fund created to care for their medical expenses for when they retire,” Sarno said in a press release.

How Dakota’s Law would work

The Dakota’s Law bill focuses on the establishment of a state fund for retired Massachusetts K-9 dogs, but includes few specifics about how it would garner money or how that money would be distributed.

Xiarhos said he intends for the fund to receive revenue allocated by the Legislature, but also for it to function as a collection pot for donations — similar to how the Cape and Islands Police K-9 Relief Fund works. He didn’t propose an idea for how much money he imagines the Legislature would deposit in the fund each year, but said that this is something to be ironed out after the law is passed.

As for how retired K-9 dogs would receive money from the fund, Xiarhos said it would be a resource their owners could turn to when caring for their dog becomes costly. As such, the money would be distributed to the dogs and owners most in need of it, rather than as an retirement entitlement or pension.

All dogs that “work” for government agencies such as a police department or the military would be eligible to use money from the fund, meaning that comfort dogs would also benefit from Dakota’s law, Xiarhos said.

What’s next

So far, Xiarhos said, no legislators have come out opposing the bill. At an information session for legislators at the Massachusetts State House on Jan. 29, Sen. Michael Moore, D- 2nd Worcester, was among a group of about a dozen lawmakers who seemed interested in supporting the law.

“I think it’s a good idea. These dogs spend their lives in service. It makes sense to give something back,” he said.

Still, if Dakota’s law is ever to make it through the Legislature, Xiarhos emphasized that it will need as many legislators to sign on as possible — at least 100, he said.

Anyone who supports Dakota’s law should reach out to their representative and senator to ask them to support it, he said. Be sure to include the name of the law, as well as its bill number, which in this legislative session is HD.733.

You can find out who your legislators are, as well as their contact information, on the Legislature’s website.

Right now, LaMonte cares for 10 retired K-9 dogs at the K9 PTSD Center, seven of which served in Massachusetts. He said he has room to take in double the number of dogs, but that the center does not generate enough money to support the care of more dogs at this time.

LaMonte hopes that if Dakota’s law is passed, some of the money will be used to pay for more retired K-9 dogs to live and be treated at the center, as he estimates that up to 20% of K-9 dogs develop canine PTSD during their lives. Right now, he said there are so many K-9 dogs with PTSD and so few facilities to care for them that he’s often forced to turn away dogs referred to the center.

To learn more about canine PTSD and support the care and treatment of retired K-9 dogs thought to have PTSD, visit the K9 PTSD Center’s website. “Healing Dakota” is now available to watch in full for free on YouTube.

_____________

Visit masslive.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.