It is with a heavy heart that I relay the news that K-9 Apollo has been euthanized in order to eliminate any further suffering after multiple seizures suddenly came upon him.

This comes in the prime of his life at just over 5 years old and on the eve of recognition by the state legislature for community service. We had the privilege of working and training with this K-9 team from the day that Apollo arrived here in New Mexico. He just kept getting better and better, working the streets ever-ready for a criminal apprehension, providing drug interdiction on the interstate or competing in Police Dog trials across the country. .Just this past Friday Apollo was used to discover a dope load trying to cross the port of entry at the New Mexico – Arizona border. Photos of just a few finds by this K-9 team may be seen on the website http://www.friendsofk9.com/gallery/ under the Detector Dogs category.

Apollo and his handler Deputy John Trevor–Smith from the McKinley County Sheriff’s Department were the winners of the Top Dog award in our 1st Annual Southwest Regional Police Dog Trials this past December.

Deputy Trevor-Smith must now start the long process of replacing Apollo as his K-9 partner. It is not an easy task to find a dog capable of both patrol and narcotics detection. Once he is found and probably imported from Europe, the task of training will begin. It will be some number of months before a new K-9 is ready to hit the streets. Since Apollo was owned by John personally and not the department, he must purchase his new dog with his own money.

Friends of New Mexico K-9 (http://www.FriendsOfK9.com/NM) has started a fund to help support Deputy Trevor-Smith in his efforts to obtain a new K-9 partner.

We are asking for community support in order to reach our goal of supporting K-9 units across the state and in this case McKinley County.

You may help by sending your donation to us directly. As we are a 501c3 not for profit organization (The World’s Most Wanted, Inc.) your donation of support is tax deductible. You may also donate and pick up a K-9 Memorial pin at Title Wave Books (1408 Eubank NE, 294-9495).

Thank you.