Petco Foundation Invests in Marion Fire Department’s K9 Program Share

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The Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment (MFD) has been award­ed a $3,000 grant from the Pet­co Foun­da­tion to sup­port its K9 Pro­gram for arson investigation.

The Pet­co Foun­da­tion invest­ment will help with the cost of year­ly recer­ti­fi­ca­tion fees, dog food, and dai­ly addi­tives that MFD’s arson dog, Jer­sey, receives to help pre­vent heat exhaus­tion, and to also pro­vide cru­cial vitamins.

“The Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment K9 Team is so grate­ful for the Pet­co Foundation’s gen­eros­i­ty,” said Fire Pre­ven­tion Offi­cer & K9 Han­dler, Bran­don Eck­stein. ​“The grant will help keep Jer­sey healthy and con­tin­ue to serve the sur­round­ing area with an out­stand­ing canine that has been a huge ben­e­fit to assist­ing fire inves­ti­ga­tors with fire scenes.”

The grant was made pos­si­ble through the Pet­co Foundation’s annu­al ​“Help­ing Heroes” cam­paign. Each Octo­ber, Pet­co cus­tomers are invit­ed to donate online and in Pet­co stores across the coun­try to sup­port the life-chang­ing work of ser­vice, ther­a­py, and work­ing animals. 

Due to Mar­i­on Fire Department’s K9 Pro­gram, MFD has had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to assist local, state, and fed­er­al agen­cies with fire scenes through­out the state. Jer­sey has been able to assist with rul­ing fire scenes as incen­di­ary, and to help bring those respon­si­ble to justice.

About the Mar­i­on Fire Department:

MFD is a non-tran­s­­port career fire depart­ment pro­vid­ing Basic Life Sup­port ser­vices to a 29 square-mile area while pro­vid­ing mutu­al aid to oth­er cities and coun­ties. The Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment is ded­i­cat­ed to main­tain­ing the utmost lev­el of emer­gency response to the cit­i­zens of Mar­i­on. MFD’s strong sense of integri­ty and duty are what dri­ve them to main­tain such high lev­els of ser­vice. Through reli­able response and pub­lic safe­ty aware­ness, MFD can always be entrust­ed to reduce loss of life and prop­er­ty in its com­mu­ni­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about MFD, vis­it www​.city​of​mar​i​on​.in​.gov/fire.

About the Pet­co Foundation:

At the Pet­co Foun­da­tion, we believe that every ani­mal deserves to live its best life. Since 1999, we’ve invest­ed more than $250 mil­lion in life-sav­ing ani­mal wel­fare work to make that hap­pen. With our more than 4,000 ani­mal wel­fare part­ners, we inspire and empow­er com­mu­ni­ties to make a dif­fer­ence by invest­ing in adop­tion and med­ical care pro­grams, spay and neuter ser­vices, pet can­cer research, ser­vice and ther­a­py ani­mals, and numer­ous oth­er life-sav­ing ini­tia­tives. Through our ​‘Think Adop­tion First’ pro­gram, we part­ner with Pet­co stores and ani­mal wel­fare orga­ni­za­tions across the coun­try to increase pet adop­tions. So far, we’ve helped more than 6 mil­lion pets find their new lov­ing fam­i­lies, and we’re just get­ting start­ed. Vis­it pet​co​foun​da​tion​.org to learn more about how you can get involved, and join the con­ver­sa­tion on Face­book, Twit­ter, & Insta­gram by using the hash­tag #Help­ingHeroes.

Media Con­tact: Bran­don Eck­stein, Fire Pre­ven­tion Officer/​K9 Han­dler, MFD, 765.668.4474, beckstein@​cityofmarion.​in.​gov