‘When you lose one, you lose a piece of you’ SC ups penalties for harming police dogs

Richland County Deputy Sgt. Warren Cavanagh, remembers every detail from the night his K-9 dog Fargo was shot and killed.

“Every sound, every smell, everything I saw that night, like it was yesterday,” Cavanagh said. “He was that dog that every handler yearns to have.”

Fargo’s death and a spate of K-9 killings in recent years prompted a new state law that increases penalties for harming law enforcement animals.

Dozens of police dogs, several horses and their handlers from law enforcement agencies across the state attended a ceremonial bill signing in Columbia on Wednesday morning. As Gov. Henry McMaster and law enforcement members praised the new legislation, the dogs whined, yipped and played near the downtown memorial honoring 9/11 victims and K-9s killed in South Carolina.

McMaster said the loyal police dogs gave their lives for their handlers and would likely do it again. The new law recognizes their contributions and relationships, McMaster said.

He told the crowd about a preacher at a First Presbyterian church, which McMaster attends, who answered a question about whether dogs go to heaven.

“Of course, dogs go to heaven,” McMaster said the preacher responded. “What would heaven be like without your dogs?”

For many handlers, their canine partners are “family,” Cavanagh said. The Richland County deputy was still a police officer when he lost Fargo, but he lost his purpose, he said.

“These are not just tools, these are our partners, these are our families,” Cavanagh said. “And so now when you kill one of them, it’s a serious offense. It’s not a slap on the wrist.”

Fargo’s Story

Fargo’s, Hyco’s, Rico’s, Coba’s, Wick’s, Mikka’s, and Bumi’s Law, the legislation’s full name, is a commemoration of the seven police dogs killed in the line of duty over the last 15 years in South Carolina. The most recent casualty was Bumi, who was fatally shot in December 2024.

Fargo was the first canine commemorated. Cavanagh and his dog were tracking an armed robbery suspect, who shot and killed Fargo in December 2011, Cavanagh said.

Cavanagh said he and Fargo would sometimes know what the other was thinking. They would catch criminals and go to school demos together, where kids would pull on his tail.

He was the dog every handler yearns to have, Cavanagh told reporters Wednesday.

“And I had him for a piece of my life,” he said. Cavanagh didn’t know what to do with the empty kennel after Fargo died.

”When you lose one, you lose a piece of you,” Cavanagh said.

After Fargo, Cavanagh was assigned K-9 Chico, who he credited with giving him back his purpose. Now, he works with Viko, his seventh police dog.

Police canines “stand in that valley in between that bad guy and us as law enforcement,” Cavanagh said. It’s an “honorable thing to do.”

What ‘Fargo’s Law’ changed

Previously, offenders who injured or killed on-duty canines faced fines between $2,000 and $5,000 dollars and imprisonment of one to five years.

Fargo’s Law, sponsored by state Rep. Neil Collins, R-Pickens, increases those penalties. Those who injure or kill canines and horses now incur fines up to $20,000 and could go to prison for up to 15 years.

“I was advocating for more penalties than what’s in the current bill,” Collins said. “I’ve compromised down to what it is.”

It is a misdemeanor to maliciously and willfully taunt, tease, beat, strike or drug an on- or off-duty police dog or horse. Torturing, mutilating, disabling, injuring, poisoning or killing the animals is a felony.

The legislation was driven, not only by lawmakers’ love of dogs, but by the cost it takes to retrain a police canine, said state Rep. Jeff Johnson, R-Horry, during debate in late March.

“There is a lot of money that is invested in these law enforcement animals. Whenever they are injured or they are killed, that is tax money that has been wasted,” Johnson said.

Why lawmakers argued – and why it passed

The law passed almost unanimously with support from House Republicans and Democrats after mild debate and some pushback. Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who voted for it, questioned why police dogs were being injured and killed in the first place.

“All of us love animals, all of us love dogs and all of us that do should be asking: why is this bill necessary?” Rutherford asked during a debate in March. “Why is a dog being put in that position where they are being injured and killed?”

Collins said Wednesday police dogs helped protect officers, and Cavanagh said dogs heightened senses aid law enforcement.

“I think there are certainly situations where animals are a good use, and again, it’s to protect the officer,” Collins said.

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