It’s a sad day at the PE K9 unit as the terminally ill dog, Kojak made his final bow.
Kojak was taken out of active duty during May 2017, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. His handler, W/O Etienne Gerber had since taken him home and cared for him .Kojak became part of the family and still showed courage and strength until his dying moments.
At about 02:00 the morning of 13 August 2017, W/O Gerber heard Kojak whimpering and went to see if he was okay. He found the dog lying half inside and outside his kennel. He knew that Kojak was not well and remained with the dog. By then Kojak had lost consciousness and was deteriorating. He was taken to the veterinary clinic in Walmer. Sadly, Kojak was finally laid to rest.
Kojak had been with W/O Gerber for eight years and together they had engaged in over 650 search and rescue operations across the Province. Kojak, a German shepherd search and rescue dog. He dangled 30m below a helicopter, traversed a gold mine, trekked across treacherous mountains, rescued five people and had recovered about 275 bodies and was a professional when at work.
Kojak’s career also included finding missing hikers wandering around mountain ranges, locating hard to reach aircraft crash sites, climbing into gorges and finding missing people who had drowned in rivers or dams. Other operations included the search for missing school teacher Jayde Panayiotou, whose husband, Christopher, is standing trial for her murder.
One of the team’s most daring rescues involved a 2km climb down a mine shaft at the Bulyanhulu Gold Mine, situated 55km south of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, in 2013.
W/O Gerber and his family are devastated about his passing. ‘It is like losing a child. We are all shattered and have lost a member of our family. It was a very difficult decision to make to have him put down and I am deeply saddened by this loss.
Police dogs are our silent heroes who give tirelessly of themselves without the need for recognition.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
