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Died – 7/27/17
Handler – Detective Sgt. Josh Querin
Police K-9 Bea fondly remembered
The community lost a friendly, furry friend recently. Retired police dog Bea died early Thursday night. She was one-half of the crime-fighting canine unit with former Huron County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Josh Querin, who was her handler for nearly seven years. “She turned 14 in May. Her health definitely had been deteriorating since she retired back in December,” Querin said. Paws & Remember in Toledo agreed to cremate Bea and donated a free memorial box for her remains since she was a service dog. “I wanted to thank Mapleview (Animal Hospital) for reaching out to them and Paws & Remember for being so generous in donating the cremation and memorial box,” Querin said. In May 2010, Bea was “all-purpose certified” for drug searches, tracking and apprehension. Before Querin obtained the German Shepherd and Bea worked for the sheriff’s office, she performed drug work on cargo ships for the Drug Enforcement Agency. “She had done that since she was 5 or 4 ½ (years old),” Querin said. Once he became Bea’s handler, Querin said Bea “knew everything she was doing” and it was a matter of getting himself — the handler — on the same page as his dog. Initially, former Deputy Scott Plew was Bea’s partner and then the dog was transferred to Querin.
“I received her in March of 2010,” said Querin, who became a certified canine handler with Bea two months later. “We had a drug find within 20 minutes of being certified.” In the first seven months on the road, Bea and Querin collaborated on 88 drug seizures. The former detective estimated his dog was involved in hundreds of drug-related searches during her law enforcement career. “Josh and Bea were the most successful team we had,” said now-retired Sheriff Dane Howard shortly after Bea retired. “Bea always had a powerful nose on her.” Compared to other police dogs, Bea “was a pretty unique canine,” Querin said. He explained that many dogs “will go nuts” when left in an officer’s air-conditioned cruiser and a person walks by or because the dog is barking so loudly, the officer can’t hear a dispatcher. “Bea wasn’t that way. She was ready to go to work every day,” Querin said. “She wasn’t wound up like other dogs.” In fact, when there were visitors to the sheriff’s office, Bea was quick to seek out some attention and petting. “When she was off-duty, she was like a family pet,” Querin said. Bea was by her owner’s side when he volunteered to ring the bell for The Salvation Army during Christmas time. “People loved it,” Querin said. Mike Cooksey, Querin’s former co-worker at the sheriff’s office, knows all about the deep the connection between a handler and a police dog. As a deputy, Cooksey and a German Shepherd named Irco were the first canine unit in the department, serving under Sheriff Richard Sutherland. The pair worked together for 13 years. Irco died after suffering from degenerative kidney failure. “I cried like a baby when he was put down,” said Cooksey, who retired as the jail administrator. “He was the best partner I ever had. He had my back all the time.” When asked about Bea, Cooksey said “she was a good drug dug” who kept her focus and “went right work” even when people were nearby. “She was very meticulous,” he added, saying Bea had no problems finding narcotics. “She loved kids.” Querin said the best part of being Bea’s partner was seeing “kids’ faces light up” upon seeing his dog when they visited schools or did public demonstrations. “There would be five or six children on top of her. She was so laid back, she was OK with it,” he recalled. “She never lost her cool.”
