The Tomah Health Community Foundation is working to help keep the city of Tomah safe. Foundation members presented a $1,000 check to Tomah Police Sgt. & K-9 Handler Adam Perkins and department K-9 Viktor on June 13 to support the department’s K-9 program.
“We think in the long run it can benefit our community,” Foundation president Brian Eirschele said of the donation. “We are oriented toward the health and wellness of our area, so anytime that we can help to ensure a better world by the use of a K-9 to help with drugs and crime and remove them, that’s a good thing,” added Eirschele. It’s the second year the foundation has supported the program.
Perkins said the foundation’s donations have been vital to the K-9 program. “It’s absolutely essential,” said Perkins. “Our whole program is run off donations from the community, for medical equipment, squad cars, normal training, supplies, anything that’s needed for the dog comes from donations. Each dog is around $15,000. My K-9 car is around $50,000, so without the donations, we wouldn’t have a program.”
Born in the Czech Republic, Viktor has been with the Tomah Police Dept., seven years and according to Perkins has made a difference in keeping the community safe. “Most of what we do is finding illegal drugs, but if we do anything from tracking lost people, tracking criminals, building searches for criminals, article searches for people that lose things or pieces of evidence, school searches,” said Perkins. “We have hundreds of arrests based off his actions.”
Perkins said Viktor has also made a difference with families and children. “A lot of the kids recognize us in our squad car and they’re always yelling out to K-9 Viktor and just building that community trust is one of the main things that K-9s do.”
Plans are underway to replace Viktor next year with a new dog. “He’s got about a year and a half left as long as he stays healthy and after that he’ll retire at home with me and be another house dog,” explained Perkins. “He’s been a great dog for our department.”