Cape students to raise money for police dog

Cape Girardeau schoolchildren and Tracker, the Southeast Missourian Jr. mascot, are teaming up to raise $9,000 for a new police dog.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department had to retire its 10-year-old police dog, Jupp, earlier this month when a physical evaluation came back showing he was in danger of injuring himself.

When Cheryl Ellis, Southeast Missourian Jr. editor, found out the police department didn't have money for a new dog, she thought of a way to help raise money -- Tracker's Pay for the Pup campaign.

Starting March 4, elementary school students in Cape Girardeau will take on classroom projects to try to raise the money.

"These kids have raised money for a lot of other causes in the past," Ellis said. "I know they can pull this off."

Ellis said the children will be free to decide what type of fund raiser they would like to do and have until April 15 to raise the money.

Besides getting a new police dog, the children have another incentive to raise the money. The top producer in each school and one overall producer will be awarded with individual prizes, and the top performing classroom will get an ice cream party with Tracker.

Businesses involved

While the children will be the ones getting the prizes, the Pay for the Pup campaign isn't limited to them. Ellis is asking adults and businesses to get involved too.

Cape Skate is giving the school children $3.50 tickets to sell, with $2.50 of the proceeds going to the campaign. The tickets will be good for admission to the rink and skate rental for either one weekend in March or April. The skating rink was willing to donate 100 percent of the profits, but Ellis wanted them to keep a portion to cover operating costs.

Ellis said she is also working with two major discount chains who have expressed an interest in a fund-matching program.

Once the $9,000 is raised, the police department will be able to buy and train a European-bred and raised German shepherd.

Mike Ervin, a dog trainer in Southeast Missouri, will train the dog and the new handler.

Ervin has trained so many dogs in his 20 years he has lost count. He said training takes about eight weeks but that the wait is worth it.

"I think for a city the size of Cape it's very important to have a police dog," he said.

Dogs trained by Ervin can perform several tasks, including detecting narcotics, searching buildings, apprehending criminals and tracking.

In Jupp's 10 years he performed several of those tasks and became an important part of "Operation Safe Streets," an anti-drug campaign aimed at open-air street drug peddlers.

Making do for now

Police chief Steve Strong said the campaign will help the department because it wasn't possible to budget for a new dog this year.

In the meantime, he said, the department will make do with what it has.

"Jupp is currently not coming out on patrol," Strong said. "We would have to weigh circumstances, and if we had to have a dog immediately we would still try to utilize him, but we would hate to do that."

Strong said that if a situation would pose a threat of injury to the dog, the department could request to use a dog from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128