After almost seven years of service, one Lockport officer retired last month.
That might not be a long career for a human, but for a K-9, it’s a good run. Santos, also known as Citgo, is a black 8 1/2-year-old Belgian Malinois who for the better part of a decade worked with Officer Andy Ganger as a certified narcotics, human trafficking and suspect apprehension dog.
They would still be working together too, except for spinal bone spurs.
“Well, it was a thing where he had been having some intermittent issues and the guys at the police department would pet him and he’d yip out in pain, which was odd because he had such a high pain threshold,” said Ganger.
He’d been by Ganger’s side the whole time he was on the force whether on or off the clock, so Ganger knew something wasn’t right. He took him to the vet for an X-ray, hoping for the best.
“I was thinking maybe a hip issue, maybe he tore an ACL or something like that,” he said.
But once the X-rays came out, Ganger said he knew it was much, much worse.
“The vet showed me the X-rays and I knew immediately what that meant,” Ganger said.
It was spondylosis, a condition which causes bone spurs and the vertebrae to fuse together.
“Depending on the severity of it and how far along it is, one day he just won’t be able to get up,” Ganger said.
It’s hard to know when that day will come, and it was hard to retire the dog because he looks and acts like himself most of the time.
“If you’ve seen him for the past seven years you wouldn’t have been able to tell there’s something wrong with him,” said Ganger. “That’s what makes it hard on me, because I see his normal activity level and his normal happiness level and you’ll see him be his normal, high-energy self, but you kind of got to rein him in.”
Ganger knew he had to retire Santos. Otherwise, his work could kill him.
“Someday the day would come where I’d have to send him on a murder suspect or a robbery suspect and that person would fight him, and there was the very real possibility that he’d be paralyzed from something like that,” Ganger said. “That would be soul crushing for me, knowing I could have done something to prevent that.”
The decision wasn’t easy for Ganger. But he was a partner, a friend and a pet. Ganger knew Santos depended first on Ganger’s own best judgment.
“I have spent more time with Santos in the past seven years than I have with my children or my wife, if you actually sit down and think about the time we’ve spent at work, the time we’ve spend training outside of work and the time we spend at home,” he said. “In the past seven years he’s been a best friend, a son. He’s been everything. Every day you go to work and you have that buddy who will sacrifice his life for you and for anybody for that matter.”
Ganger, like most officers, shows up ready for anything with a bullet proof vest, a side arm and the rest of it. But Santos made him feel safe.
“He’s worth more than any can of pepper spray or Taser or any of that stuff,” Ganger said.
But he couldn’t ignore the diagnosis and he knew what he had to do for his partner, In mid-February, Ganger informed the police department his partner was sick and wouldn’t be getting better anytime soon.
The department hosted a retirement party, a proper affair with cake, speeches and celebration — not so different from a human retirement party. These days he’s living out his retirement at Ganger’s house, with his family and, for that matter, Santos’ retirement isn’t so different from anyone else’s.
With medications, Santos isn’t suffering and he remains active. Ganger said he’s hopeful activity, a good diet and medicine will keep the worst of his illness at bay.
It’s not clear if the Lockport Police Department will replace Santos. Ganger hopes they will. The program is expensive, but Ganger said the returns are worth it.
“It’s hard to quantify for people that want to put dollar amount and the cost benefit analysis and all that kind of stuff. It’s hard to put a value on what Santos is,” he said.
Ganger said Santos was a big hit among school children. He was a big, cute dog who had an immediate appeal for kids at school events, so he was good at public relations as well as helping solve crimes.
“He brings not only the stuff that he can do in terms of officer protection, tracking and sniffing out narcotics from cars, but the PR aspect of him is not even measurable,” Ganger said.
Ganger said the dog can literally out perform any human, criminal or not.
“Santos, if he gives a full clip, he can jump a 6-foot fence,” Ganger said. “I would like to see a human being who could outrun Santos. I don’t think they exist.”
Santos won’t be jumping fences anymore, but he will spend his life with his partner, Ganger.
“Even though it was a devastating thing to come to the realization that his police career was over, I came to the realization that I get my partner, I get my friend and I get some quality years with him. And for a K-9 handler that doesn’t always happen,” he said.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
