Honorary Officer Abigail Arias To Judge K9s4COP Competition

HOUSTON, TX – Honorary Freeport Police Officer Abigail Arias will be serve as an honorary judge at K9s4COPs Hard Dog, Fast Dog Competition held at Rodeo Houston.

Arias, 6, who is battling Wilms tumor, was sworn in as an honorary officer by Freeport Police Chief Ray Garivey on Feb. 7.

Since then, Arias has made the rounds with other local law enforcement agencies. However, serving as an honorary judge will be one of her first official duties as an honorary officer.

The Hard Dog, Fast Dog Competition will take place during First Responder Day, on Monday, March 4 at 6 p.m., in the NRG Center/Main Cattle Arena. Police dogs will compete for the fastest hit speed and hardest bite.

K9s4COPs was founded in 2010 by Texas Philanthropist, Kristi Schiller, to fund the donations of highly trained K9s to law enforcement agencies and schools around the world. These donations offset the costs of budget cuts, which can deeply affect the K9 unit.

In 2014, Schiller founded the initiative K9s4KIDs, which provides trained K9s to schools and universities. Currently, our K9s4KIDs K9s protect over 1 million students on a daily basis.

Typically, each K9 can cost in range of $15,000 to a specialized K9 that can value in excess of $45,000. These essential tools are often the first to fall to department budget cuts.

To date K9s4COPs has granted nearly 200 K9s to law enforcement agencies and schools in the United States as well as internationally to Paris, France.

K9s4COPs has aided in the removal of over $250 million worth of contraband off the street, confiscated more than 4,500 firearms, participated in 7,500 arrests and helped keep the peace in over 4,000 public demonstrations.

K9s4COPs is funded through private donations and community support. For more information on K9s4COPs and K9s4KIDs or to make a donation, please visit www.K9s4COPs.org.

READ ALSO: Abigail's Wish: Cancer Patient Takes Police Officer's Oath

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