Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Retires K9 After 8 Years Of Service

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has retired a faithful K9 after nearly eight years of service. K9 Hiro, a Belgian Malinois born in Slovakia, began training with Deputy Kevin Skau in October 2009.

Throughout his career, Hiro was deployed 1,278 times to include tracking and conducting area searches, building searches and narcotics “sniffs.” During that time, Hiro located 102 subjects, including criminal suspects and missing persons.

(For more local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Sarasota Patch. Click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Hiro received recogniton during the National Police Canine Association Narcotic Detection Trials and in November 2016, along with Skau, was awarded employee of the month for the sheriff’s office.

"Needless to say, he has had a very successful career and we are forever grateful for his service!," the sheriff's said in making the announcement.

Hiro will live out his retirement with the Skau family.

Photo via Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Facebook page