Tazewell County Sheriff's Office gets new 4-legged member

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
·2 min read

Jan. 4—TAZEWELL, Va. — A new four-legged asset is now helping the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office with its efforts to get methamphetamine, heroin and other controlled substances out of the community.

The sheriff's office recently acquired Rita, an 18-month-old Dutch Shepherd that was trained along with her handler, Deputy C. French. to help with searches and other tasks. Rita is the third K9 working with local deputies. Another one of the office's K9s, Reni, is also a Dutch Shepherd.

In mid-December, Rita made her first find when she sniffed out some methamphetamine on a suspect, according to Major Harold Heatley with the sheriff's office. Rita was soon posing with her catch on social media.

The sheriff's office purchased Rita from a company called F.M. K9 in Berrien, Michigan. She was first brought to Tazewell County for basic obedience training. After a month of that training, Rita and Deputy French went back to Michigan for eight weeks of additional training, Heatley said.

Heatley said the cost of both Rita and the training, about $20,000, were paid for with donations from local businesses.

Rita has been trained to perform tasks including drug searches and controlled aggression/patrol work, he said.

She is also certified for finding articles such as evidence and for tracking fugitives and missing persons.

Rita and the other K9s play an important role in combating the controlled substances that drug dealers bring into the county.

"We have influx of heroin and methamphetamine in our county that's coming in across the border from West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina and points further out like Detroit and Atlanta," Heatley said. "And so we're doing our best to combat that by adding a third K9, and Sheriff (Brian) Hieatt has made this a priority during his terms as sheriff to bring down as many drug dealers as possible working in conjunction with our Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and Mr. Chris Plaster."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com