Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

A Howell man has paid for a protective vest for a Wayne County Sheriff’s Department officer’s K-9 dog, as well as a vest for a Kent County K-9.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Tom Sperling of Howell said he always had a soft spot for dogs and even more so after his Belgian Malinois dog died. The 61-year-old Sperling had heard about the efforts of an Ohio boy, Brady Snakovsky, to secure ballistic vests for K-9 dogs.

The boy started with a “Go Fund Me” drive of $1,500 for a single vest, but after it was featured on local news the effort mushroomed. Since its beginning in 2018, the fund has been able to provide vests for over 1,100 dogs, with 56 dogs on the waiting list.

In order to afford the money for the vests, Sperling, a skilled tradesman at the Ford River Rouge plant, worked overtime. He told the Free Press that a Maryland woman had sponsored 100 K-9 dogs through Brady’s fund, and he’s “trying to catch up to her now.”

Sperling donated the $1,200 for the dog vest for Gunnar at the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and also sponsored a vest for Zeke, a K-9 dog at the Kent County Sheriff’s Office. He was able to hand-deliver the vests to Gunnar and Zeke, and said it “was the coolest thing” to see where his money is going "and how grateful they are.”

Gunnar's most important assignment so far was in May, when Vice President Kamala Harris was in Detroit visiting the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and he was asked to assist with explosive sweeps. Wayne County Sheriff’s Corporal Rick Cadez’s K-9 got the new vest — an LOF Defence Systems K-9 Streetfighter - on July 17th. Cadez says thanks to Sperling’s generous donation, Gunnar’s vital organs will now be protected in future assignments.