Blount County Sheriff's Office K-9s will soon receive special lifesaving body armor.
The BCSO said ten of its K-9s will be the recipients of a generous donation of special stab and bullet-protective vests.
The vests are provided by the Massachusetts non-profit Vested Interest in K9s, Inc., which collects donations to provide these vests to law enforcement agencies across the country. Many police and deputy K-9s in East Tennessee have been the recipient of vests provided by the organization.
Blount County K-9s Celo, Daisy, Bak, Wiskey, Roxy, Renzo, Gino, Luna, Toby and Braum are expected to receive the vests in about eight to ten weeks.
These vests were sponsored by the Margaret Thiele Petti Foundation in Portland, OR. and will be embroidered in memory of Petti.
Each vest costs about $950 to make. Since its founding in 2009, Vested Interest has provided more than 3,300 vests across 50 states.
"We are very excited about this generous contribution," Sheriff James Lee Berrong said. "Our K-9s are members of our BCSO family, and we place a very high value on them. It is good to know they will soon be protected the same way our other deputies are protected."