The First Official Pit Bull Police Dog in New York [PHOTO]

Pit Bulls get bad press a lot of the time because they tend to be the breed that a lot of people utilize to protect themselves. Some owners take advantage of their underlying aggression and instead of getting them trained to control it, they push them to be more angry. That's why I was so excited to see that the first pit bull was named a police officer in New York State. I can't believe this happened in November 2016 and we didn't know about this amazing story!

Brad Croft is the Operations Manager for UniversalK9 who trains dogs to become members of the police force, SWAT, etc. Croft went to an animal shelter in Kirby, Texas looking for a potential recruit when a pit bull named Kiah grabbed his attention. Kiah was abused as a puppy, survived but didn't seem to hold a grudge. Croft decided to take Kiah home to see how she may do as a police dog.

Training Kiah was difficult in the beginning, according to WREG News Channel 3 Memphis, but ended up outperforming every other dog after eight weeks. The City of Poughkeepsie Police Department was looking for another K9 for their unit and were connected with Kiah. Kiah has since worked with her partner as a narcotics and missing persons detection dog. This past November Kiah received the ASPCA Public Service Award in New York City on Thursday as the first pit bull police dog in the state of New York. Look how proud Kiah looks to have received that honor, I'm just sorry we didn't know about this story sooner!