Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 249 in Butler had to find a cause to donate some of the money raised from small games of chance played at the post, and the city police department was looking to restart its canine program.

The veterans and police came together Wednesday when post officers presented the department with a $15,000 donation for the canine fund.

“We have to give away 60 percent of the money we raise each year and we figured the City of Butler desperately needed a police dog,” said Stephen Freeman, post commander.

City police haven't had a canine since Gunner, a 7-year-old German shepherd that joined the department in 2012, died in December. Another police dog was retired earlier.

The VFW donation will be added to the fund, which already had $38,000 in donations, and the money will be used to buy and train two canines, said Robert O'Neill, Butler police chief.

At least one of the dogs and an officer should be working as partners this summer, he said.

“We couldn't afford dogs without donations. The community is really rallying round it,” O'Neill said.

The department receives donations, some as small as $5, from residents and businesses for the canine fund, he said.

It costs $15,000 to buy a canine trained for law enforcement work and $5,000 to $6,000 a year to cover the cost of feeding and caring for each dog, training the officer and outfitting a vehicle for canine use, he said.

“That's a whole dog right there,” O'Neill said about the VFW's donation.

He said the department will buy the dogs from the Pittsburgh Police Department's canine unit, which will also train Butler's officers to work with the dogs.

Several officers want to have a dog, O'Neill said. The officers will be evaluated by Pittsburgh's canine unit, O'Neill said.

The department will transfer the canine equipment from an older canine vehicle to a newer vehicle for one officer-canine team, but a second vehicle will have to be purchased for the second team, he said.

Officers value dogs as patrol partners.

“When the police dog is there, (people) rarely do bad things,” O'Neill said.

VFW members said the post donates money from small games of chance and fundraisers to a variety of organizations and causes.