Ruff and Ready
Texas game warden K9 team celebrates milestone.
By Maggie Berger
Photo by Chase Fountain
For more than 10 years, game warden canine officers have been following their noses to work, helping Texas game wardens rescue people and solving cases statewide.
The canine unit became a reality for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division in 2013 when the first five canine handlers and their dogs graduated from an intensive eight-week training program at the world-famous Utah POST canine facility in Sandy, Utah. The second wave of five handlers and their dogs graduated from the program the following year, marking 2024 as the 10-year anniversary of a full canine team.
“We felt a K9 team would benefit our agency and partner agencies by serving as a force multiplier and cutting down on search hours,” says Capt. Christy Vales, who leads the team. “Dogs are amazing animals, and they can do with their noses what no one else can.”
Over the years, 18 wardens and 25 canines have been part of the program, with four of the current game warden handlers serving on the initial teams.
The 10 wardens and their canine partners are spread across the state, and they are at the ready to travel wherever and whenever they are needed. “We go where the work needs us,” says Sgt. David McMillen. “Jake and I go everywhere together and are happy to provide a service to our fellow game wardens.”
Wardens and their dogs must face some difficult situations together. Early in 2023, Sgt. Royce Ilse and K9 Izzy responded to a call in Bee County to assist first responders from South Texas who were deployed to the scene of a grain silo accident. Two large silos full of thousands of pounds of corn had collapsed, trapping three men under corn and debris. Two men had already been pulled from the rubble and taken to area hospitals. Izzy searched the pile and found a location where a beam had created a gap in the corn. Responders immediately began digging in that location; four feet down, they found the third victim, deceased. While it was not the outcome responders sought, Izzy's efforts allowed the victim to be found quickly.
In February 2019, Sgt. Kryssie Thompson and K9 Dexter were deployed to the scene of a plane crash in Chambers County. Three people were aboard the plane when it went down as it approached a Houston airport. Human remains had been found for two passengers, but none for the third. Thompson and Dexter searched for six days to find the third victim. Dexter found multiple locations on the island closest to the crash site and locations in the water that contained more remains, all of which belonged to the third victim.
These examples are just two of many calls the wardens and their K9 partners respond to on a yearly basis. Vales hopes the opportunity comes to expand the team and better serve fellow officers.
“The work is absolutely there for additional handlers and K9s,” she says. “Sometimes we just don't know how great the need is until we get a team in an area of the state and they begin networking with game wardens, local law enforcement and the community.”
