La Crosse Police are regretfully announcing the early retirement of K9 Zaback due to an injury sustained while doing a public demonstration.
Zaback was added to the La Crosse Police Department canine unit June of 2013 and was assigned to Officer Trenton Bowe. During his six-year career Zaback has worked hard to protect our community and get drugs off the streets of La Crosse. Zaback and Officer Bowe also did many community demonstrations, informing and entertaining young and old in our community. Additionally, Zaback had placed 3rd overall at the 2014 United States Police Canine annual certification and then 2019 had a perfect score in drug detection.
In July of this year during a public demonstration Zaback injured his back. The injury resulted in him having a hard time controlling his back legs. An MRI showed Zaback a compressed vertebra and required surgery. Last week Zaback had surgery at UW Madison and is now at home with Officer Bowe recovering. Based on the prognosis and limitations provided by UW Madison, Zaback will not return to patrol duties due to this and is being retired. We hope this surgery allows Zaback to have a healthy retirement.
As part of the retirement, Officer Bowe will be keeping Zaback as all our K9 handlers are offered the opportunity to formally adopt their partners at the time department retires the dog. We look forward to Zaback being healed enough to enjoy an official retirement ceremony put on by the department sometime in the future.
The La Crosse Police Canine unit is funded in part through public donations. We ask anyone interested in donating to offset the expenses associated with Zaback surgery can visit www.gofundme.com/healing-help-for-k9-zaback.
La Crosse PD Newsroom 