Abandoned Person County dog headed to Hawaii as rescue animal

Reba the bloodhound arrived at the Person County animal shelter in December 2014. The staff realized that Reba needed a job to do and contacted Public Safety Dogs Inc., a nonprofit that trains shelter dogs to become search-and-rescue animals and then donates them to law enforcement agencies.

“It’s just her drive to do it and all the time and training we’ve put in to it,” said Mike Craig with Public Service Dogs, Inc.

The 3-year-old bloodhound completed her training in April, but wasn’t able to leave until now because Hawaii, which is the only state that is rabies-free, has strict rules on animals that required Reba to complete a four-month quarantine.

Public Service Dogs, Inc. has donated Reba to the Honolulu Police Department, which currently doesn’t have a service dog.

“It’s extremely populated and there are people on top of people so for a dog to be able to follow one person amongst a million people, it takes a special dog to do that and that’s Reba,” said Craig.

It will cost about $4,000 to send Reba and a trainer to Hawaii. Right now, Public Service Dogs, Inc. only has enough money to send Reba and hopes to raise funds to be able to send a trainer there to work with the police department.