‘It was breaking my heart’: Jeannette mayor orders city police to reinstate police dog Diesel
Jeannette Mayor Curtis Antoniak could not stand to see the city’s former police dog Diesel moved to another kennel.
That’s why Antoniak ordered the city’s police department to bring the 4-year-old Belgian Malinois back to service less than a month after its police dog program was shut down.
The city shuttered its K-9 unit in July, citing cost concerns. The department had two police dogs, Diesel and Kilo, handled by Sgt. James Phillips and Officer Matthew Painter, respectively.
Kilo lives with Painter. Phillips took Diesel to a kennel in late July, which has cost the city $30 per day.
“We were going to have to move (Diesel) again on Wednesday to another kennel,” Antoniak said. “I love animals. I cannot see this dog being moved again. I was feeling very bad about the dog being in a kennel. … It was breaking my heart.”
Antoniak said an already stretched city budget and questions about the police dog program’s cost-to-benefit ratio contributed to the end of the unit, despite residents pleading with city council to rethink the decision earlier this month.
“We’d love to better utilize the dog,” he said, “but at least we’re getting him out of the kennel, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Phillips will retrieve Diesel from the kennel Tuesday.
“It was great news to hear today that Diesel and the K-9 program is being reinstated, both for the city of Jeannette Police Department and our community to which we serve,” Phillips said.
About a month before the program was shut down, Phillips and Painter filed a federal lawsuit against Jeannette, claiming the city violated labor laws by not paying overtime and costs associated with caring for the dogs.
The city purchased Diesel in 2022 with the help of an $11,000 donation from the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office. Diesel replaced Arees, who retired that year.
Kilo came with Painter when he left the Uniontown police force in 2021. Donations collected in 2023 helped pay for an SUV that allowed Kilo to join Painter on the job in Jeannette.
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.
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