Fall Local Living 2023

30—Fall Local Living 2023 W hile Jason Johnson spent decades as a K-9 handler and trainer at some of the highest levels in the United States Government, in 2016 he began to think about what happens to those highly trained dogs when they reach retirement age and can no longer serve their country. Later that year, the Michigan native founded the non- profit Project K-9Hero to do something about it. “Up until that point in my career, 2016, I just focused on training dogs, working dogs, but I didn’t really think about what happened to themin retirement,” he said fromthe Project K-9 facility inMarion County, Tennessee. Managing a program of more than 1,000 working dogs, Johnson said when K-9 handlers would come to him to say their dog could no lon- ger work and he would retire them, signing them over to their handler and release the dog from the responsibility of the government, including the responsibility for medical care. “As a former handler, trainer, soldier and police officer, all the things I have done, a federal employee…I really didn’t feel it was right that we use themto the point that we can’t use themany- more and thenwe put that all on somebody else.” Johnson said the first responders and mili- tary mem- b e r s that are able to keep their K - 9 after its service to the na- t i o n concludes, can be faced with signifi- cant medical bills. “ T h e y don’t neces- sarily have the money it takes to pay for these types of bills,” he said. With $500 from his own pocket, Coleman launched Project K-9 Hero in 2016. Since that time the nonprofit has set up shop at a 177-acre secure facility in rural Marion County (one hour south of Tullahoma) and provided millions of dollars in medical care for retired military work- ing dogs and police K-9s. According to the nonprofit’s statistics, Proj- ect K-9 Hero raised $4.4 million in gross dona- tions across all platforms in 2022, an increase of $600,000 over the previous year. With a main focus on medical care, food, rehabilitation, re- homing and end of duty services, 88% of those donations are utilized for those causes. Johnson saidProject K-9Herohas received a 100% four star rating with Charity Navigator. “We work really hard to get that,” he said. “We have a 100% score, only one tenth of 1% of charities have 100% score and we are one of them.” Johnson said that while many people have seen K-9s in communities throughout the coun- try, and understand that these dogs risk their lives to protect the public, he would like for more people to know that there is nothing in place for these dogs through the military or federal gov- ernment to provide any care for them following their retirement. “Whoever adopts them, that is totally on them,” Johnson said. “We have dogs in the (Continued on page 31) Project K-9 Hero provides care for retired police and military dogs