Underdog is Here! Owego’s New Police Dog Has a Hard-Luck Back Story

Owego Police have a new K-9 Officer with a hard-luck story behind her.  

K-9 Mag had been a stray, in a shelter, adopted, surrendered to a paid shelter but not retrieved, put back in a dog pound, adopted again and sent back to the shelter when the family moved.  It may not help that the three-year-old girl is a Belgian Malinois, but mixed with Pitbull, a breed that gets a bad P.R. wrap.

Mag was finally noticed by the nonprofit, Southern Tier Police Canine Association in Binghamton that specializes in training police canines for their Homeless to Hero program.

Owego Police say their new officer easily passed all the required tests and was pulled from the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter for a final time and put to work, undergoing two months of extensive training. 

After finishing her training, Mag was donated to the Owego Police along with $6,000-worth of equipment for outfitting a patrol vehicle and her basic equipment. Normally, acquiring and training a police dog could cost a department around $10,000, not counting the cost of the equipment and modifying a police car. 

Mag will be working cases involving narcotics detection and tracking. 

An under-appreciated dog that ends up fighting crime?  Reminds us of the old cartoon: UNDERDOG!  (1964-1973?)