Canine Partnership Recognized for Saving Endangered Man's Life

Thanks to Master Deputy Gary Herman’s quick thinking, and Ruby’s “keen nose,” a missing man with reported suicidal tendencies was found in time to save his life.

For their efforts, the deputy and his canine partner were recognized this month with the fourth quarter Life-Saving Award at the Awards Recognition Ceremony held by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Credited for their "quick and skilled response," the canine partnership found the man "sluggish" and in a "semi-conscious state," according to the record read at the awards ceremony Dec. 14. Herman called Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and after paramedics arrived on the scene, they were able to stabilize the man's condition and transport him to a local hospital, "where he received medical treatment and made a full recovery."

When Gary Met Ruby

Herman said that Ruby is the first bloodhound received by the sheriff’s office from the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction, named for a 9-year-old boy kidnapped at gunpoint from his school bus stop.

According to the center’s Web site, Ryce was sodomized and shot as he attempted to escape and now the center works “to free more children from the clutches of sexual predators.”

 “My sergeant got Ruby at eight weeks old and when he got promoted I was next in line to get her,” Herman said. “Her job is to look for missing, lost and endangered people.”

The bloodhound has “a million times the scent capacity of humans and 60 times that of German shepherds,” according to the Jimmy Ryce Web site. “They can as easily follow the scent trail of the person whose scent they are started on, as we can follow, with our eyes, footprints in wet sand.”

The man whose life was saved lived in Valrico and had been missing for approximately 12 hours, Herman said in an interview before receiving his award. “We deployed and searched through the neighborhood and found the guy unconscious.”

According to the responding paramedics, “if he had been out there much longer it would have been fatal,” Herman said. “I get goose bumps just thinking about it.”

Family Roots, Bloodhound's Instincts

Herman hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he went to school on a football scholarship and graduated with a degree in criminal justice from Grand Valley State University.

Two of his uncles retired from the City of Detroit Police Department, he added, noting as well that his dad worked in the U.S. Army as a canine handler.

As for how he ended up in law enforcement, with a canine as a partner, Herman simply said: “There was something in my blood.”

As for Ruby’s temperament, he said, “she’s a lover.”

“She’s 10 years old but you’d never know it when it’s time for her to go to work,” Herman said. “She runs to the car and she’s ready to go.”