| August 15, 2010
Members;
The Cover Your Canine campaign is still accepting requests
for ballistic canine vests. I met with several different vendors
throughout the past year. After many months of research and development,
Bill Forbes of K9 Tactical Gear has produced an exceptional K9 vest. Bill was willing and able to
listen to design concepts I had requested from several different vendors with
no success since this campaign started. Together, with the help and input
from many WSPCA members, we designed a very hi-tech canine
vest with both ballistic and slash/stab protective panels included our specifications This vest is state-of-the-art,: lightweight, quick to put on your K-9 and allows your K-9 exceptional freedom of movement during the most critical deployments,
We are very proud of the final
product, which many of you may have seen at one of the more recent K9 Trials.
This new vest is light weight and designed so the canine can wear it and
move more freely than any other vest currently out there. The WSPCA "Cover
Your Canine" Campaign will provide one of these vests to you and your agency.
If for some reason you prefer a different manufacturer, WSPCA will provide $800
towards the purchase of any vest that you and your agency might choose. Many vendors are providing upgrades to their K-9 Vests in the coming weeks. The Final deadline will be
October 1, 2010. We need to have the vests ordered by then due to accounting
deadlines.
Please check the WSPCA website for the criteria and submit an application ASAP.
Feel free to email me at
slecouve@sacsheriff.com or call me.
Respectfully,
Steve LeCouve
Vice President WSPCA
Chairman-Cover Your Canine Campaign
916-607-9495
WSPCA “Cover Your K-9” Fund Update – November 2009
On July 18th the WSPCA and Pet Food Express worked hand in hand to sponsor an unprecedented, wide-scale event to benefit police K-9 teams and educate the public about the need for supporting these strategic teams. On that day 50 Police K-9 teams were deployed from departments around the Bay Area to provide K-9 demonstrations at 30 Pet Food Express locations. Some of the many K-9 units attending came from the SF Sheriff’s Dept, SFPD, SSFPD, San Bruno PD, San Mateo County Sheriff’s SO, Oakland PD, Alameda County SO, Hayward PD, Fremont PD, Dublin PD, Livermore PD, Contra Costa County SD, Santa Clara PD, Sunnyvale DPS, Atherton PD, Milpitas PD, Marina PD, Benecia PD, Napa PD and many others.
The K-9 units showed off their obedience and agility skills and demonstrated many of the important functions that K-9s perform such as explosives and narcotics detection, area search and tracking, felony car stop simulations and suspect apprehension. The response from Pet Food Express, its customers and the many members of the public has been just incredible. This year the fundraiser focused on the need for bullet-proof vests for K-9s. As a result of the collaboration with Pet Food Express, the WSPCA “Cover Your K-9” Fund has received over $71,000 in donations for the purchase of K-9 protective vests.
With these funds we will be able to provide high quality, custom-fit vests for close to 100 police and sheriff’s K-9s in the region. The success of the event has also given us the ability to negotiate the best possible price with the vendors and to upgrade to threat level Level IIIa vests. In reviewing vest designs, we also learned that we can use the field experience of our canine officers to help improve vest designs to provide the best mobility and protection for our canine partners.
The WSPCA – Pet Food Express "Cover Your K9" fundraiser has been a success in many ways and we will continue to build on it going forward. This has really struck a chord with the public, as even in these difficult times, everyone wants to see these brave dogs working with the protection that they deserve. In addition, the reception that the K9 teams and command staff received at the Pet Food Express event as well as the great coverage by the press has been a tremendous morale booster for the K-9 units in our area.
Thank you so much for your support of our K-9 teams.
all the best,
Steve Lecouve,
WSPCA Vice President
The fiscal sponsor for the "Cover Your K-9" Fund is the
non-profit Modesto Police Canine Association
TAX ID #77-0525624
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