A K9 officer in Baytown died last week after he was bitten by a snake, according to police.
K9 Lenin, 2, was bitten by a venomous snake while training on Wednesday, Baytown police said in a Facebook post. He was rushed to the Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists, but died on Thursday.
Recommended Videos
“K-9 Lenin fought the effects of the venom and veterinarians did everything possible to save him, unfortunately, it was not enough,” the post said.
Lenin was a Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd mix and was born in Hungary. He became certified in August and was assigned to K9 Officer Kinzie. Lenin was the department’s first Explosive Ordinance Detection K9, or bomb and gun dog.
Lenin and his handler were involved in three explosive sweeps and 17 weapons sweeps in 2022. Last year, Lenin found 10 firearms and nine items of evidence.
This year, Lenin and his handler had one explosive sweep and seven firearm sweeps. Lenin found three firearms and one item of evidence.
Police said last month, Lenin and Kenzie competed against 75 other K9 teams during a training seminar in Alabama.
At the seminar, Lenin and Kenzie won the TOP Bomb Dog Award, second place for Bomb Scramble and third place for Bomb Vehicles.
“The Baytown Police Department mourns the loss of K9 Lenin. He was one of our own as surely as any other officer in this agency is one of our own,” police Chief John Stringer said in the post. “For us, that means he was family and he will be missed, but never forgotten. Our hearts are heavy for his partner, K9 Officer Kinzie, who lost not only a partner, but a faithful friend. K9 Lenin made significant contributions to the safety of Baytown in his short time with our department and he will be missed.”