Gloucester County Sheriff’s Department mourns the passing of K-9 PApa Bear and K-9 Delta

Gloucester County Sheriff Carmel Morina announced the passing of two Gloucester County Sheriff’s K-9 dogs, Detla and PApa Bear.

“Delta was a great asset to our K-9 Unit and provided a valuable service to the residents of Gloucester County,” Mornia said.

Delta, a 4-year-old red bloodhound, passed away from kidney failure in June. She had been a member of the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Department since November 2013. Due to her keen ability to trail a single person’s scent, Delta’s primary duty was to aide in the Sheriff Department’s Project Lifesaver program. One of her many success stories was on Sept. 10, 2014 when Delta successfully tracked and found a three and a half year old who wondered off in Glassboro.

“Delta and PApa Bear did an outstanding job for the citizens of Gloucester County throughout their careers and their good work will not soon be forgotten,” said Freeholder Dan Christy, liaison to the Sheriff’s Department.

K-9 PApa Bear was on the force for just two short years before he passed away a few weeks ago. PApa Bear was diagnosed with terminal cancer in his kidney, pancreas and chest area.

“Making the decision to put PApa Bear down was a difficult but necessary one due to the pain and discomfort he was experiencing and the reduction of his quality of life,” said Sheriff Officer Molnar.

PApa bear was a 5-year-old narcotics detection labrador retriever who throughout his time with the Gloucester County’s Sheriff’s Department participated in numerous public K-9 demonstrations and assisted in the detection of narcotics for numerous municipalities in Gloucester and Salem counties as well as aided the Rowan University Police.

In the controlled real world environment, K-9 PApa Bear was proven to be 96.55 percent reliable and consistent to the detection of narcotic odor, said Mornia.