Hunter was a full blooded blood hound, and a service dog used by the Estill County Rescue Squad to locate missing people. A few weeks back, Hunter was found dead of a gunshot wound in a ditch along Redlick rd. & Kissy branch rd. 59 year old Charles Collins was arrested in connection to Hunter’s murder and charged with assault on a service animal and animal cruelty.
A GoFundMe page has been set up in light of Hunter’s tragic incident to help raise funds for training, certifications, tracking equipment and any other expenses with a new search and rescue dog.
After working weeks on Hunter’s Memorial Fund, we finally reached AND exceeded our $5,000 goal late yesterday when Father Jim Sichko made his generous big donation.
We received news that Father Jim Sichko who worked with St Mark Church in Richmond for many years, pledged $1,500 to the fundraiser. His generous donation brought the total to over $5,000. In addition, the Renfro’s collision challenge (which promised a donation of $1,000 if a $3,000 goal was reached) also pledged in their $1,000. This totaled the donation to a little over $6,000 thus topping the original goal substantially.
A big thank you to those who donated and special thanks to Father Sichko, Shannon Renfro with Renfro’s Collision, and Robbie Robertson of Concrete Materials.
The money raise will be used in many ways for extensive, specialized search and rescue training for a new dog that hopefully will be working in our local communities for years to come.
