On Monday, Clinton unexpectedly lost its most experienced and well-known search and rescue dog. ‘Read more’ for the statement and information from Emergency K9 Operations, Inc. Search and Rescue (Lois & Bill Hall).
K-9 Hawk, a West German bred German Shepherd, spent his entire 13 years serving the communities in and around Clinton County. Hawk was a member of the Emergency K-9 Operations, Inc. Search and Rescue Team and had served on the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office Reserve. He was also a charter member of the Clinton County Emergency Management CERT Therapy Dog Outreach Program.
Through his life time of volunteer service, Hawk and his handler/owner, Bill Hall, were recognized by numerous organizations for their work. They were selected as Hy-Vee Hawkeye Heroes in 2012 and received the Governor’s Volunteer Award in 2016. Hawk also received national recognition from the American Kennel Club for Search and Rescue as well as the Distinguished Therapy Dog title.
Hawk began training for search and rescue work when he was only 10 weeks old. As a member of Emergency K-9 Operations, Inc. Search and Rescue, he attained Operational Certification in Tracking, Air Scent, Evidence Search, Building Search, Disaster First Response, Human Remains Detection, and Search and Rescue. Hawk was only the second K-9 to serve on the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office Reserve. Hawk passed national certifications with the North American Police Work Dog Association. He traveled to seven states and attended nearly 1000 hours of training at regional and national workshops in addition to weekly team training sessions.
Hawk made his first find on his second deployment when he located two missing young people who left their living facility. Soon after, he found a confused elderly woman who had been missing for over six hours from her residence after a severe rainstorm.
Working his first disaster, a fire that destroyed most of a city block, he located the sole victim of the fire under the rubble of a 5-story building. Hawk also provided evidence for law enforcement to send a murderer to prison when he located the buried remains of a murder victim missing for over a year.
Throughout his career, Hawk successfully worked drownings, fire scenes, murders, evidence recoveries, missing person and human remains recovery cases, travelling as far as Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada. In Idaho, Hawk worked the wilderness near the Grand Mogul Peak of the Sawtooth Mountains for a missing 24 year old climber and was deployed on multiple missions in the search for a missing 20 year woman at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.
Nationally registered as a Therapy Dog, Hawk was actively involved in school, civic and safety presentations. He visited at many health care facilities included Genesis Medical Center Rehabilitation, the Ronald McDonald House and Hope Lodge. He took part in over 500 visits and programs including Bald Eagle Days, the Stand-down for Veterans, Military Family Summer school, Vacation Bible Schools, Library Reading Programs, Discovery Center, Safety Town, Science Expo, and DARE school programs. He supported fire departments at Family Safety Days and law enforcement at Memorials and Citizen Police Academies. Hawk also became a pen pal in the Youth and Pet Survivors (YAPS) program based at Children’s Hospital Colorado Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.
In the summer of 2011, while in Colorado for Historical Remains training, Hawk suffered a severe back injury. He was taken to the University of Missouri for spinal surgery. After undergoing six months of rehabilitative physical therapy, he was able to return to work and attend the national FEMA level Disaster Dog Training at Disaster City in Texas.
In the fall of 2014, Hawk was diagnosed with a rare form of nasal cancer. He received stereotactic radiation treatments at Colorado State University Flint Animal Care Center. After several rounds of chemotherapy, Hawk faced yet another life-threatening condition, gastric torsion. He overcame all of these obstacles to return to the search and therapy work that he loved.
Sadly, as Hawk celebrated his 13th birthday, he became ill and was unexpectedly diagnosed with a second, very aggressive form of cancer which took his life.
We remember Hawk. Throwing out the first pitch at the Lumberkings game on his first birthday. Listening to young readers sharing their favorite books at both the Clinton and Camanche libraries. Chiming in to help Bill with presentations. Comforting fellow cancer survivors. Searching tirelessly for the missing. With honor and respect…we remember.
A Memorial and Celebration of Hawk’s life will be held at the Clinton County Courthouse on October 9th at 1:30. The public is welcome to attend, to participate and to share their memories of Hawk.
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