Bloodhound joins NC county sheriff's office

By William R. Toler
Richmond County Daily Journal

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — When the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office decided to get a bloodhound, Capt. Mike Burns had a deputy in mind to be the handler: Paul McDole.

“He’s got a passion for dogs,” Burns said. “He’s the first person I thought of.”

Burns equated the relationship between a K-9 and handler as like a marriage, saying one has to be dedicated to it.

“Whenever we choose our handlers, we try to choose somebody we know is going to stick around for a while,” he said.

McDole said he was excited about the opportunity to become a handler.

“It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.

After checking around with other agencies, 832 Deputy’s Dogs seemed a popular pick for bloodhounds.

“We’ve got a good working relationship with Marlboro County (South Carolina), and they highly recommended them,” Burns said.

The Inverness, Florida-basded organization, part of the Kody Snodgrass Memorial Foundation, has placed more than 140 trained bloodhounds with law enforcement agencies across the country and in Europe, according to its website.

Duke Snodgrass, executive director, became involved with bloodhounds in the late ’70s after the abduction and murder of his wife’s sister.

Growing up around the dogs known for their tracking abilities, his son Kody eventually became a bloodhound handler with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, but died in an off-duty motorcycle wreck in 2001. His badge number was 0832, hence the organization’s name.

“He’s very picky about who he sells his dogs to,” Burns said of Snodgrass. “If he felt like (the dog and handler) are not bonding well, he’d let us know it wasn’t a match.”

McDole went to Florida last May to meet Elizabeth for their first week of training. He then brought the 5-year-old bloodhound back with him for bonding through September.

“The dog’s got to be able to trust me,” he said.

The pair went back to Florida where McDole was certified as a handler on Sept. 25.

The sheriff’s office spent $3,500 on Elizabeth and received a $1,000 grant from Wal-Mart to help with the cost.

“We’ve used her quite a bit here lately…on several missing people cases,” McDole said.

Elizabeth located one person and tracked in the direction of where two others were found, which McDole said counts as “indirect successes” for her. One of those was a 4 ½-mile track, the longest so far, where the person was found a few miles ahead.

She has also been used to track down suspects in criminal cases.

“Anything with tracking, she can be used on,” he said.

Not only is Elizabeth the only bloodhound at the sheriff’s office — Sgt. Travis Bowman and Deputy Josh Chermak both handle multi-purpose dogs — she is also the only one in the county.

“Bloodhounds are a valuable tool, just because of their scent discrimination,” McDole said. “There are scents that are older that other dogs can’t pick up. If we have a missing person…she’s going to ignore everybody else’s scent…and go with the scent I give her.”

Another benefit to having a bloodhound, he added, is that they’re not bite dogs, “they’re gentle giants.”

McDole said he is looking forward to working with his K-9 partner — which he takes care of 24 hours a day — adding, “She’s got several more years in her.”

According to the National Police Dog Foundation, the average age to retire a dog is 10 years old.

Three Richmond County K-9s, two in Rockingham and one in Hamlet, have been retired since October.

Whenever Elizabeth is retired, he thinks it would be beneficial for the sheriff’s office to replace her.

“Hopefully we can keep a bloodhound with us,” he said, “just because of how invaluable they are.”

Copyright 2016 the Richmond County Daily Journal