GREEN – Summit County Sheriff’s Office deputies and civilian staff were joined by law enforcement and K-9 units from throughout the region at the Sheriff’s Office Training Center in Green this afternoon to honor our recently-departed K-9, Anna.
“Anna was a member of our family,” said Sheriff Kandy Fatheree in her remarks, “she put her life on the line every day for the public.”
Seven-year-old Anna passed away on April 16th from complications related to cancer. She was born to a breeder in the nation of Columbia, and was trained in explosives- detection in Canada before joining the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
She and her handler, Deputy Brian Cutlip, have spent the past five years working together full-time at the Akron-Canton Airport, and remained on-call 24 hours a day responding to calls throughout the eight-county region served by the Summit County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad. Over the past five years, they have worked hundreds of public events, VIP visits, sport and concert venues, festivals, parades, demonstrations, and more.
Anna was more than just Deputy Cutlip’s partner, however, she was a part of his family and lived in the Cutlip household. Last month, Cutlip noticed Anna wasn’t acting herself and took her for an examination, which detected a tumor under her heart and between her lungs. Unfortunately, before a decision on treatment could even be made, Anna suffered a blood clot in her spine likely related to the cancer and had to be put down.
Anna was a gift to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office made possible through a grant from the Timken Foundation, who have already offered to purchase a new K-9 for the Sheriff’s Office upon learning of Anna’s death. We thank them for their continued generous support of our K-9 Unit.
