One of New Zealand Police's longest serving patrol dogs, Hades, died yesterday aged nine, just hours after completing his final job.
His decorated career in the force lives up to his Greek God namesake.
As part of the high performance patrol team overseen by his handler Senior Constable Sue Burridge, Hades spent five years making hundreds of catches for Wellington Police.
The star of TV shows Dog Squad and Women in Blue was diagnosed with cancer last month. (Source: Other)
He was diagnosed with cancer last month but it hardly slowed Hades down, and he was described as working on some "positive tracks" leading officers to people of interest on his very last shift on Saturday night.
Sadly, Hades became very ill yesterday morning and had to be put down.
The pair of Senior Constable Burridge and Hades were familiar to many on the right side of the law too, through their involvement in the Dog Squad and Women in Blue 2 reality TV series.
Dual trained in search and rescue and victim recovery work, Hades and Senior Constable Burridge were also finalists in the 2014 Police Patrol Dog National Championship.
It doesn’t stop there though. Hades was also the inspiration for junior fiction book, The Adventures of Police Dog Ace, written by Senior Constable Burridge and published in August this year.
"Hades has had a great career and with Sue has been part of a very good operational team," says Senior Sergeant Mark Davidson, officer in charge of Wellington Police Dog Section.
"They've contributed a huge amount to police and the public."
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