Search Underway for Missing Police Dog Zoey

Zoey, a working dog with the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office, was expertly trained to find and rescue people. Now Zoey's people are trying to find and rescue her.

On August 5, the female bloodhound was on a morning walk with her handler near St. Paul's Drive and Piney Church Road in Waldorf when she wiggled out of her collar and ran off, said Sgt. Mario Ellis, a sheriff's office spokesman. The handler "chased her as far as he could," Ellis said, but eventually lost the trail in a nearby wooded area.

Almost a week later, Ellis said, authorities are still looking for Zoey. They have even brought in other canine handlers and police from Charles County to help track her down, he said.

"I do find some irony in it, but by the same token, it's very serious to us," Ellis said. "You treat those dogs as if they're members of the agency."

Ellis said he could not recall another time when a police dog escaped.

As is common practice, Zoey lived with her handler in Charles County, near the area where she ran away, Ellis said. Ellis declined to identify the handler.

Zoey is black and tan, weighs 80 to 85 pounds and looks like a "typical" bloodhound, Ellis said. She is 5 1/2 years old.

Ellis said Zoey, who has been with the office for 3 1/2 years, is not trained to be violent toward people.

"Say if you're a child lost in the woods -- it's the kind of dog that would find you and sit and kind of howl until [rescuers] got there," Ellis said. "Even bomb dogs, none of them are trained to bite. . . . By the same token, it's still a dog, so you have to treat it like all the other dogs."

Ellis said he was not sure whether Zoey was trained specifically to search for people while unleashed. He said police think she is still in the Waldorf area, although those searching for her have run into multiple dead ends there.

Anyone with information about Zoey is asked to call the sheriff's office at 301-780-8600.