Momentum is building for retired Massachusetts police dogs to receive pension funds under a bill pending at the State House, named in honor of a K-9 that responded to the Boston Marathon bombing.
Dakota’s Law, a proposed fund that would cover care for retired police and military dogs across the Bay State, is picking up steam on Beacon Hill, inching ever closer to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk.
The Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security has referred the bill to the House Committee on Ways and Means, and advocates are pushing for greater awareness of the importance of supporting retired K-9s.
State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Barnstable Republican, introduced Dakota’s Law in April 2023, 10 years after terrorist brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev bombed the 117th Boston Marathon. The bill made it to the House’s Ways and Means committee last legislative session but received no further action.
Xiarhos says this time around feels different because of a special new Massachusetts vanity license plate that benefits K-9s and their caretakers.
The plate bears the letters, ‘SG,’ in memoriam of Yarmouth Police Sgt. Sean Gannon, a K-9 officer who died at age 32 on April 12, 2018, shortly after being shot by a man who was hiding in the attic of a Marstons Mills home.
Gannon’s dog, Nero, has survived gunshot wounds that he suffered during the rampage. The dog is the inspiration for a law in his name, which allows EMS personnel to provide emergency treatment and transport for K-9 officers.
Nero is now retired and lives with Gannon’s widow, Dara.
Caring for police dogs is a passion for Xiarhos, who served as Yarmouth’s deputy police chief at the time of Gannon’s death. The tragedy compelled him to retire after 40 years in law enforcement and run for office.
The proposed pension funds for retired K-9s would be a combination of state and private money.
“Lawmaking is hard, and sometimes, it’s ‘Well, how much is it going to cost?’” Xiarhos told the Herald on Friday. “And now, when you have a license plate helping to generate the funds, that’s a huge thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be all taxpayer-funded,” he added. “There are people who will donate. We just need a place to put it, and it’s this.”
Proceeds from the license plates are also directly benefiting the K-9 PTSD Research Center, a nonprofit that James LaMonte founded in 2019 in Seekonk. LaMonte oversees a team of veterinarians, trainers and behavioral specialists working with retired dogs.
The center is currently home to 15 retired dogs, even one that protected President Trump and President Biden. LaMonte estimates the annual cost of caring for each animal is roughly $18,000 “out of the pocket,” including about $300 to $500 in monthly medications per K-9.
The Seekonk resident started the center after he received a call in early 2019 inquiring whether he’d be interested in homing Dakota, a former Newton K-9 who helped track down Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A handler at the Essex County Sheriff’s Department could no longer care for Dakota.
LaMonte, who at the time was training working dogs through positive reinforcement with Wheaton College, cashed in his retirement accounts and sold his vehicles to pay for Dakota’s medical expenses.
Dakota, a half German shepherd, half Dutch shepherd mix from the Czech Republic, had visible signs of PTSD when he arrived at the center, LaMonte recalled vividly.
“Dakota was shaking, avoiding contact, but he was running in circles and defecating himself,” LaMonte said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ That’s what caused the attenton to Dakota.”
The dog strengthened over time at the center. He died at the age 12 from pancreatitis in 2022. Passing Dakota’s Law would signal that Massachusetts truly cares about the health of retired K-9s, LaMonte said.
“They all would have been euthanized, including Dakota,” he said. “For me, I am very passionate about it, I’ve lived this, so I have a motive for it, but if we’re going say we’re this, let’s show that we’re this.”
Every police department treats its K-9 program differently.
In Yarmouth, retired dogs live with their handler who accepts the animal and pays all of the medical bills, Xiarhos said. Sometimes, it’s just too much money, he added. In other departments, the K-9 is either put down or given to another officer.
“These dogs, K-9s, give us the best years of their life serving us, protecting us, and they run towards danger,” state Sen. Kelly Dooner, a Taunton Republican, told the Herald. “They deserve to be treated just like we would treat the other officers.”
Over 2,500 K-9 license plates have already been ordered through the K9 PTSD Research Center. Bay Staters interested in supporting the cause can pre-order the special plates online and will be placed on a waiting list.
“There is a lot of division in this country, but this topic, this law,” state Rep. Justin Thurber, a Somerset Republican, said, “is something that both sides agree on.”
LaMonte and the work at the K9 PTSD Center is spotlighted in “Healing Dakota,” a 2023 film that has won various awards locally, nationally and internationally.
Daniel Valente, a former Newton police officer who handled Dakota, shares his close connection with the dog that he worked with on Commonwealth Avenue during the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Days after Valente and Dakota closed down the Marathon at the Boston-Newton line, the duo responded to Watertown to assist with the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers. They spent a whole day “searching yards” before a resident spotted blood on the outside of his boat.
“We responded to that scene, established a perimeter,” Valente says in the film, “and subsequently, the last Tsarnaev brother was taken into custody inside that boat.”
Valente and Dakota split ways after the K-9 escaped from the handler’s Needham home and bit a 10-year-old boy in November 2014. The incident led the city of Newton to pay $125,000 to settle claims.
“It’s hard,” Valente said of losing Dakota. “I mean, he was a family member. I miss the work that we did, miss working with him.”
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