Meet Chewy. The Inspiration for “Chewy’s Red Ball Fund”, a campaign ran by H.E.A.L.
Sharon, whose family owns the Mexico Cafe in San Bernardino and Temecula, founded Helping Every Animal League (H.E.A.L.) a nonprofit which was originally formed to assist the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter. After several years, the non-profit began focusing on raising funds to assist local law enforcement agencies with providing funds for obtaining K9s and K9 support. This is done through it’s “Dollars for Dogs” fundraising events. These events are held twice yearly at the Mexico Cafe.
In September 2016, Sharon Gaitan adopted Chewy, a Redlands Police Dept Narcotics Detection K9 who was forced to medically retire due to seizures. It was discovered that Chewy had developed idiopathic epilepsy of which there is no cure. Sharon and Chewy developed an immediate deep bond. Sharon devoted herself to helping Chewy live a long and happy life and spent thousands of dollars to do so. Unfortunately, on December 27, 2018, Sharon realized that the seizures had diminished Chewy’s quality of life and made the hard decision to let him cross the Rainbow.
It was because of Chewy’s long plight with medical treatments and the insurmountable costs that Sharon realized that there are many other law enforcement K9s that find themselves in the same predicament. If a K9 is seriously injured while in service, the agency must provide the costs for the treatments. These costs can cripple an agencies K9 Unit and, often, it becomes the responsibility of the handler (partner) to raise the funds them-selves. When a K9 retires after serving it’s community, these four-legged unsung heroes do so without the benefit of medical insurance and it becomes their families responsibility to provide for their medical care.
Therefore, in honor of her beloved Chewy, Sharon has decided to form an on-going campaign under H.E.A.L. named “Chewy's Red Ball Fund” which will provide medical insurance for all local law enforcement K-9s through their entire lifetime.
