News : VINTON POLICE DEPARTMENT"�S K-9 GINO RECEIVES BODY ARMOR

The Vinton Police Department's K9 Gino has received a bullet and stab resistant protective vestthanks to a charitable donation from the non-profit organization, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. K9 Gino's vest is embroidered with the sentiment "In memory of K9 Ty, California City PoliceDepartment"�. K9 Ty died due to complications during surgery to treat injuries received whilehe and officers attempted to rescue a woman and child being held hostage in a home. K9 Gino's new vest will primarily be worn during high-risk activities such as searches forcriminal suspects. K9 Gino and his partner, Senior Police Officer Ben Parmater, have been very active during theten months since they completed their initial six week training at Vohne Liche Kennels inIndiana. In that time, the team has made 15 narcotics arrests, has been called to assist in asearch for a missing person, and assisted other officers searching for suspects who had fled onfoot on three occasions. K9 Gino and SPO Parmater continue to train regularly and were recently re-certified inobedience, tracking, article recovery, apprehension, and narcotics detection through the NorthAmerican Police Work Dog Association (NAPWDA). Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. is a 501c (3) charity located in East Taunton, MA whose mission is toprovide bullet and stab protective vests and other assistance to dogs of law enforcement andrelated agencies throughout the United States. The non-profit was established in 2009 to assistlaw enforcement agencies with this potentially lifesaving body armor for their four-legged K9officers. Since its inception, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. provided over 2,400 protective vests, in50 states, through private and corporate donations, at a cost of over 2.1 million dollars. The program is open to dogs actively employed in the U.S. with law enforcement or relatedagencies who are certified and at least 20 months of age. New K9 graduates, as well as K9s withexpired vests, are eligible to participate. The donation to provide one protective vest for a law enforcement K9 is $1,050.00. Each vesthas a value between $1,795 - $2,234 and a five-year warranty, and an average weight of 4-5lbs. There is an estimated 30,000 law enforcement K9s throughout the United States. For more information or to learn about volunteer opportunities, please call 508-824-6978. VestedInterest in K9s, Inc. provides information, lists events, and accepts tax-deductible donations ofany denomination at www.vik9s.org or mailed to P.O. Box 9 East Taunton, MA 02718.