Retiring K-9 handler fights to keep dog

An Orange County sheriff's deputy is struggling with the department to keep his ill K-9 partner after he retires. Ed Josefovitz and his wife, Melissa, say the 7-year-old German Shepherd named Hunter

News 12 Staff

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May 27, 2014, 9:41 PM

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Updated 3,865 days ago

An Orange County sheriff's deputy is struggling with the department to keep his ill K-9 partner after he retires.

Ed Josefovitz and his wife, Melissa, say the 7-year-old German Shepherd named Hunter is a family member, and they don't want to lose him when Josefovitz leaves the department later in October.

"If he's trained with a new handler, he'll last maybe a year," Melissa Josefovitz says. "They would have to purchase a new dog for the handler."

The Josefovitzes say they offered the department $8,000 for the dog, but their request has been denied, although other handlers have been allowed to keep their dogs as pets.