BAYTOWN, Texas – The Baytown Police Department is mourning its bomb/gun dog Lenin that died on Thursday after being bitten by a venomous snake.
The department said a snake bit the dog during an on-duty training exercise on Wednesday.
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“K-9 Lenin fought the effects of the venom and veterinarians did everything possible to save him, unfortunately, it was not enough,” a post by the Baytown Police Department said on Facebook.
K-9 Lenin was the first explosive ordinance detection K9 (bomb/gun) dog for the Baytown Police Department.
“Though he was only with our department for a short time period, he made a lasting impact on our K9 Unit, Police Department and community,” the post read.
K-9 Lenin was assigned to K-9 Officer Kinzie No. 53 and assigned badge number 253. -K9 Lenin was born on Aug. 26, 2020, in Hungary. K-9 Lenin is a Maliherd, which is a mixed breed between a Belgium Malinois and a German Shepherd.
K-9 Officer Kinzie and K-9 Lenin went through an extensive training session at Houston K-9 Academy as well as in-house training and became certified on Aug. 25, 2022. Over the next seven months, they were utilized on several large explosive sweeps in and around the Baytown area including the Pasadena Convention Center. In 2022, K-9 Lenin conducted three explosive sweeps and 17 weapons sweeps. K-9 Lenin found 10 firearms in 2022 and located nine items of evidence, which include shell casings. In 2023, K-9 Officer Kinzie and K-9 Lenin picked up where they left off and had one explosive sweep and seven firearm sweeps. Just this year, K-9 Lenin located three firearms and one additional item of evidence, shell casings. In February 2023, K-9 Officer Kinzie and K-9 Lenin went to Dothan, Alabama, to compete and train in a week-long training seminar against 75 other K-9 Teams. K-9 Officer Kinzie and K-9 Lenin won the TOP Bomb Dog Award, second place for Bomb Scramble, and third place for Bomb Vehicles.
“The Baytown Police Department mourns the loss of K9 Lenin,” Chief of Police, John Stringer said. “He was one of our own as surely as any other officer in this agency is one of our own. For us, that means he was family and he will be missed, but never forgotten. Our hearts are heavy for his partner, K-9 Officer Kinzie, who lost not only a partner, but a faithful friend. K-9 Lenin made significant contributions to the safety of Baytown in his short time with our department and he will be missed.”