Duluth Police K9 Officer Hondo Is Now Retired

The Northland K9 Foundation announced today that after six years of service K9 Officer Hondo is retiring. K9 Hondo finished his last shift last night with officer Hurst who he has been working with since 2015.

K9 Hondo's specialty was explosives detection and so the team would often work major events such as Grandmas Marathon, Blues Fest to when politicians would visit the Twin Ports. K9 Hondo was also very involved in many community events and demonstrations and was very popular among kids and adults.

K9 Hondo was very spoiled on his final shift and Officer Hurst is looking forward to many years ahead with Hondo settling in as his sole new role of family pet. The next event is Operation K9 2021 at The University of Wisconsin Superior Field on Thursday August 12 from 4:00-7:30pm.

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The event is free and open to the public with a chance to meet the dogs, K9 demonstrations, Family Friendly Activities, Law Enforcement vehicles will be on display, silent auction, food and refreshments, a silent auction and K9 souvenirs will also be available for purchase.

These K9's are an integral part of law enforcement and often go into situations that are to dangerous for for their human partners. They make their human partners job much safer and help them work more efficiently by using their sharp sense of smell to detect suspects and also help find evidence. These dogs work in all kinds of weather and conditions along with being a family pet when they are off duty. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing program such as this in our area, with so much hard work and dedication going into the constant training of these K9 Officers.  Thank you for your service K9 Officer Hondo for all your years of service!