After his four-legged partner Kane died in 2011, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Osborne started looking for a permanent way to memorialize all the dogs who die protecting citizens.
This summer, with the permanent memorial in the works, Vancouver Police Department K-9 Ike was stabbed while trying to apprehend a fleeing suspect. And so Osborne attended another memorial service.
“I think we do a really good job of memorializing dog officers when they die, but as time passes, they kind of are forgotten about,” he said.
Ike’s death reinvigorated the effort to make the memorial a reality, and now the project in the early stages of approval by the county.
“I wanted some kind of permanent structure that stands the test of time so they’re not forgotten about after we’re all gone,” he said. “I think its really important.”
Two years after Kane’s death, local artist Mark McLean created a life-size stone statue of Kane. In January, Osborne got the OK from the county to use the courtyard between the Clark County Courthouse and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office for the memorial, which would include the statue.
Eventually, Vancouver nonprofit DOGPAW, which advocates for off-leash dog parks and works closely with area K-9 units, got behind the effort. More people gave their input and the memorial grew to include human officers who have died in the line of duty as well.
“Yes, it started with the dogs, but we don’t have a good memorial for fallen (human) officers either,” said Mark Watson, maintenance and development coordinator for DOGPAW. “We just don’t have anything like this and it’s time we do.”
A preliminary artist’s rendering of the memorial features a bronze cauldron that stands 20 feet in the air, with an eternal burning flame and water flowing into a catch basin below. The courtyard will include life-size statues of all five fallen Clark County police dogs, plaques for the eight fallen human law enforcement officers and an area for three flagpoles.
Acting County Manager Mark McCauley said that he hasn’t seen the artist’s rendering but he supports the memorial.
“I think it’ll be a pretty impressive piece of work,” he said. “I thought that was a great idea and it’s certainly appropriate.”
Watson met with County General Services Director Bob Stevens this week to take the first formal steps toward cutting all the red tape. Stevens has met with county lawyers, who have given him the green light on the plan.
“At this point, unless some major deal-breaker pops up, such as the final design doesn’t meet approval, I don’t see it facing too many hurdles from here on out,” Stevens said.
Watson said that DOGPAW will raise the money to erect the memorial, as well as fund an annuity to offset ongoing costs such as maintenance. His goal is to raise $100,000.
The memorial still needs to get approval by the sheriff, meet code and risk management safety requirements and go through the permitting process.
“It takes a lot to do a good thing,” Watson said. “But that’s OK, I’ll jump through all the hoops … We decided that this needs to be a memorial we can be proud of.”
Watson said he is determined to make the memorial happen, even if it doesn’t happen on county property.
“This will go forward one way or another,” he said.
