A Ridgeland SC DNR captain trained a K-9 partner. But when he retired, the dog didn’t
Capt. Gentry Thames’ daughter cried as Rio, the family’s yellow Labrador retriever, left the driveway, carried away by officers of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Although Rio lived with Thames and his family near Ridgeland in Jasper County, the dog wasn’t theirs to keep.
Rio is one of a handful of specially-trained dogs that make up DNR’s Canine Team, which Thames oversaw up until his retirement from the agency at the end of this month. The K-9s track missing people, locate evidence and help triangulate wildlife such as duck, wild turkey, deer and bears across the state.
They live with their handlers.
“Even though Rio was a working dog, she was also part of our family,” Thames wrote in a Facebook post Monday, the day the dog left. DNR had offered to sell the lab to the retiring captain, but the steep price — $8,000 — didn’t reflect the hours Thames had put into training Rio and the agency’s other canines, the post read.
“Today was one of the hardest things I have had to do during my career,” Thames wrote.
Reached by phone, Thames declined to comment for this story.
This week, his post spread like wildfire, with almost 150 people — many Jasper County locals who had known Gentry during his 31-year career with DNR — expressing congratulations on his retirement.
And in some cases, outrage, too.
“I think that is a disgrace and a dishonor to you and your K9,” wrote one commentor, about the dog’s separation.
Dianne Lawson, a close friend of Thames, couldn’t get Rio out of her head.
“I stayed awake one whole night thinking about this dog,” she said in an interview.
Lawson met Thames over 20 years ago, she said. She and her husband owned a farm near Ridgeland and had regular contact with DNR officers.
One day, Lawson pulled up to her barn with a horse trailer in tow. She opened the trailer and began to wrangle the horse inside when, suddenly, the animal bucked.
“The horse just blew up,” she said. It pinned her against the wall of the trailer.
The next thing Lawson remembers is a knife piercing the open window next to her and cutting the horse’s lead line. In the same moment, Thames was there, pulling her out of the trailer.
“They saved my life,” Lawson said of Thames and the other DNR officer who carried out the impromptu rescue.
So, after a night tossing and turning thinking about Thames’ K-9 partner, Lawson decided to make some calls. She talked with friends about setting up a GoFundMe page, and quickly realized she could raise the $8,000 to buy the dog.
She reached out to both South Carolina senators, and after a day or so, was on the phone with a colonel with DNR. The officer explained the training that went into a dog like Rio. The colonel quoted several prices during the conversation, Lawson says, but finally stated, “the dog was not for sale any longer.”
In an interview, Capt. Robert McCullough, a spokesperson for the agency, said the full cost of replacing the dog would have totaled $14,000 to $16,000, all things considered. McCullough confirmed the agency had offered to sell Rio to Thames, saying it had given him two months to decide.
But at the end of May, another member of DNR’s Canine Team, a Laborador retriever named Blue, suffered a medical emergency and died suddenly. At that point, the agency made the decision that Thames’ dog was needed to take Blue’s place, McCullough said.
The dog belongs to the state, he said.
“It’s not a truck or a boat, but it’s state property ... you can’t just get state property when you retire.”
For Lawson, allowing Thames to keep the dog at a fair price was just the right thing to do.
“I think the state of South Carolina can afford to do that for a 31-year veteran,” she said.
Lawson knows Thames harbors no ill-will toward the agency. The Facebook post, she said, was just an outlet for the hurt losing the dog caused him.
“Every day of their lives with DNR they got up and went to work together,” she said. “You can’t give him his partner? You can’t let [the dog] stay with him?”
There is one consolation, Lawson said.
Thames is going into the canine training business.
Rio won’t be the last dog he raises, she said.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 10:47 AM.
